Ultraviolet

Chapter Thirty-One: Honest Thief

Hadeon grabbed the practically empty bottle of vodka and tipped the remnants down the sink. "Go to bed, Violet." The warning in his voice didn't go over my head, but I wasn't done.

"I never finished." I sighed. "I wasn't done saying what I really think of you."

"I think you said enough." He growled.

"No, there was a but!"

"I don't care!" He declared, spinning around to look at me. "You and your opinions don't matter to me!"

"But I wasn't..." I felt the vodka swirl in my stomach and my throat seemed to dry out. Hadeon stared, waiting for me to continue. I blinked hard. Breathed in. Breathed out. Then it became pretty clear to me that I had a limited amount of time to sprint down the hall and into the bathroom.

I fell down at the toilet, my head dangerously close to the seat but that didn't feel like it really mattered as my stomach burst apart. Note to self: vodka tastes even worse coming up than it did going down. I felt my hair being pulled behind me, Hadeon's hands holding it together.

"Fucking lightweight." He mumbled. I just groaned into the toilet in response.

Hadeon grabbed a hair tie out of a drawer and tied my hair up. I didn't comment on how it was both too loose and too tight. He then stood up and left. I went to ask where he was going, but then a whiff of what I'd previously... expelled wafted into my nose, triggering another round.

"I got you some water." Hadeon announced.

He appeared beside me and placed the glass on the ground. I grabbed it and took a long gulp, breathing out heavily as I set the glass back down.

Now feeling empty, I moved back and leant against the wall, facing Hadeon. I was always drawn to his eyes. In this lighting, they were a warm brown.

"What I was going to say," I started. Hadeon turned to me, listening intently. "Is that you are bossy and, uh, whatever else I said, BUT... you are also considerate and caring and understanding."

I smiled at him.

"And I think that makes up for all of the other things."

Hadeon matched my smile, but only for a moment, before he dropped his head to look at his hands. "You don't know everything about me, Violet."

"I know enough." I placed my hand over his that was resting on the floor between us, but he quickly pulled his away.

"I've done a lot of things. Things that might make you think of me differently. I've... hurt people."

"Good people?" I questioned. I already knew the answer.

"No, but-"

"The things you did, were they worse than what these people have done to others?"

"No."

I smiled faintly, my eyelids were heavy on my eyes but I felt wide awake sitting next to Hadeon, feeling his faint breath on my forehead.

"I know that there's more to the bar than being a bar. I've noticed the times you'd come home late, in a bad mood, with blood dried on your knuckles."

Hadeon turned away, anxiously holding his bottom lip between his teeth.

"But I also know that everything you do is to protect someone else. I trust that every one of your bad actions, will lead to something good. Does that make sense?"

Hadeon nodded, his stone face cracked into an appreciative smile.

I could stare at that smile for hours.