“Go back to sleep.” I heard Sebastian say as I moved to get closer to his heat. Problem was, he wasn’t in bed anymore. Sitting up, I looked at the clock while he was getting dressed. It was only four thirty in the morning. Where the hell was he going?

“I have to deal with something. Go back to sleep.” Laying back down, I heard him leave the room and say something to someone just outside the door. Rolling into his warm spot, I pulled the blanket up over my shoulders. Whatever was going on most likely had to do with what happened in the kitchen. I shook my head as I recalled kissing him by my choice last night.

Getting out of bed, I left the bedroom and walked to the couch. Sitting down, I looked at the man who was sitting on the other couch; it wasn’t the same man from last time. He looked up from the phone and sighed.

“The don told you to go back to sleep.”

“He did, but I’m not tired anymore. So here we are.” I said, reaching for the remote and flicking on the tv. Finding a music station, I put it on and stretched out on the couch. What to do until he came back?

Heading to the kitchen, it was cleaned from top to bottom and smelled clean. If I hadn’t seen the blood, I wouldn’t have believed it had actually happened.

“You’re not allowed in the kitchen.”

“It’s clean now. I want tea.” I muttered, heading to dig through the cupboards for some tea bags. Finding a box of green tea, I tossed on in a mug off the cup rack and flicked the kettle on the counter on. The sound of the music from the living room tb reached the kitchen, and I danced to the sound a bit.

The kettle clicked, and I poured the hot water into the cup, letting it steep for a few minutes before removing the bag with a spoon and heading to the living room with my cup. I set it on the coffee table and sat down.

“If you want a tea or coffee, they are in the kitchen, help yourself.” I said like I owned the place.

I sipped my tea while dancing along to the music on the couch and looking around at anything I could get into to pass the time. Turning up the music a little more, I took my empty teacup to the sink in the kitchen and came back, flicking the large ceiling light on. The house was pretty clean, but I wanted to be busy, so I started cleaning. It wasn’t hard to find the cleaning supplies.

Dancing while wiping the front of the TV screen, I heard Roan before I saw him and the man that he was involved with, for better words, swapped out spots with the man who was watching me. Checking the clock on the wall, it was only six am now.

“Rhory, what are you doing?” Roan asked, a clear look of confusion on his face.

“Cleaning. What happened to you being pissed off at me?” I asked and went back to wiping the screen.

“I’m still mad at you, but I get it.” He muttered, as he sat down on the couch beside his partner. “It’s a lot to take in and you were still adjusting.”

“Adjusting.” I muttered, “Nope. I wasn’t adjusting. I was escaping. There is a big difference.”

“You’re right, but I---”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s done and over with now, Roan. I’ve decided I’m just going to deal with it. Either way, I’m getting fucked, and you’re cooking drugs.” I said flatly and finished with cleaning the TV screen. With another cleaning wipe, I read the package before I wiped the TV stand with it.

“I’m concerned about you, Rhory.” Roan said, and I turned to look at him.

“You’re concerned about me? Don’t be. I’m no longer concerned with what you do.”

Roan’s mouth opened slightly, and he looked stunned by my words. “Rhory, I think—”

“You best not do that, Roan. That will get us all into trouble.” I said and scrubbed at the stand a little harder. He said nothing after that, and instead just held onto his partner’s hand as they cuddled on the couch and watched me clean the living room.

Sebastian returned as I was mopping the floor in the entryway, and he stopped. A few henchmen with him, and he looked pretty confused. “Take your shoes off, please. I’m just finishing up.”

Sebastian was the first one to remove his shoes, and the others followed suit. He waited until everyone had headed into the living room before he spoke. “Rhory, what are you doing?”

“Cleaning.”

“Right, I see that, but why?”

“I needed something to do, and this fit what I wanted.”

“I told you to go back to sleep.”

“Well, I couldn’t. So, I was productive, Sebastian. You could say thank you.” I muttered. He looked a little uncomfortable with the tone of voice I took with him, and seemed surprised when he went into the living room and Roan and his partner were gone.

“Did Roan come visit you?”

“Yes, he did. But he didn’t stay very long. Apparently, I was being mean to him. Oh, well.”

“Right, put the mop down. I’m putting you back to bed. Whatever adrenaline leftovers fuelled this, I don’t like it,” Sebastian said, before taking the mop from me and turning off the tv. He lightly moved me back to the bedroom. I got back into the bed, and he flicked the light off and shut the door.

I let out a yawn and settled back into bed. I hadn’t really meant to bitch at Roan again, but it happened. And to be completely honest, I had said nothing other than the truth. I was fucked. The least I could do would be to accept the truth at this point and just go with the flow. Or whatever.

Unable to sleep, I just laid in the bed for an hour more before I got up again. I could smell fresh coffee and followed the scent to the kitchen. Sebastian was sitting at the table, a fresh steaming cup of coffee in his hands, and looked down at his watch.

“You lasted in bed longer than I thought you would.”

I crinkled my nose at him. Slowly machining my way to the kitchen table, I looked around under my feet and it was clean. Not a spot of blood missed even this close up. Looking at my chair after I pulled it out, I nodded slowly before sitting down.

“Like it never happened.” I muttered.

Sebastian just sipped his coffee and while his eyes bore into me. I wasn’t really all that fond of this either.

“Stop staring at me.” I sighed.

“I’ll look at you if I want to, Rhory. Right now, I’m debating my choices, but I think I’ve decided now with your help,” he said and stood up. “Want a coffee? Tea?”

“I’ll take either. I don’t care.”

I watched his back as he made my drink and wondered what was so important that he needed to get up so early. I thought my job sucked sometimes, but his had to be worse, and not just because he killed people, but the hours seemed like total shit.

He set the cup down in front of me, and it was clearly tea, but the addition of milk put me off. This was the first time he had served me tea with milk.

“It’s not green tea. It needs a little milk and sugar to be palatable.”

“Right.” I said, before bringing to my mouth and taking a sip. Even with the sugar, it was bitter, and I wasn’t sure I liked it, but I didn’t want to waste it. “I think it needs more sugar.” I complained to him.

He got the sugar container, and I added two more spoons’ worth before stirring it. It was a little better, but not by much. There was a terrible aftertaste that the sugar just didn’t cut through. With a single sip of the tea left in the clear glass cup, Sebastian looked at me and smiled softly.

“Did you know that allergy medicine it used as a sleep aid sometimes? But the taste isn’t always the best.”

Looking at the last sip again, I picked up the cup and swirled it, looking at the grains that I could see now that I looked closer. “I didn’t. But I guess I do now.”

“It’s nothing that could hurt you, and I checked with your brother first. But I had them on hand already. Your sea food allergy and all.” He said, and it seemed like he was quite proud of himself.

“Right.” I said, before downing the rest of the disgusting tea. “Next time, I think I’d like to just take the whole pill. It would most likely be far better tasting.”

“I could do that, but I wanted to satisfaction of shutting you up for a few hours.” Sebastian chuckled.

Walking to the bedroom, I debated between my room and his, and settled with just heading back to his bed. The blankets were already a mess in there, and it was perfectly dark and cool. Or at least that’s what I was telling myself on the way there; to justify my choice.

Crawling back into the semi warm spot in the bed, I pulled the blankets up to my chin and rolled around a bit before I felt heavy. This had to be the start of the medication kicking it. Wiggling around until I hard my arm wrapped around one of his pillows, I laid my head down and let out a long relaxing deep breath. I could try to fight this medication, but what was the need? A few more hours of sleep would likely do me some good.

Sebastian came to the room sometime later, and I felt him get into the bed, and it woke me up briefly, before I was swallowed by sleep again. I felt him wrap his arm around my hip and press his warmth against me, but anything after that was blank. I was gone, having surrendered to the medication again.