Getting It Together

The Empire has Fallen

Pascal turned to Roman as he stepped on the first stair, pointing up at the entrance to the kitchen. "Flores, you can wait up in the kitchen while I take Alejo to his son, maybe grab a bite to eat if you want."

Florencio nodded submissively, standing and following his twin and Pascal up the stairs, watching as Pascal continued to lead Alejo away. A man was sitting at the table that Florencio didn't recognize. He wasn't like the priest called Jason that had been at Pascal's wedding, nor was he like Alex. He had brown hair and eyes, and slightly tanned skin. He was shorter than Florencio, noticeable even though he was sitting. The man looked up from his phone and over at Florencio, smirking at him. Florencio gave him a tight smile, not wanting to anger anyone that chose to be friends with Pascal. He moves over to the counters and opens an unlocked one, grabbing a granola bar to eat.

10 minutes passed.

Pascal could not be moving any slower.

How many rules could he have?

"So, we'll probably be here a while." Florencio looked over at the man, who was looking at him with the same smirk. He stood and went to the cabinets, looking through them, "Do you want anything else to eat? You were asleep for a while."

"No, thank you." Florencio took a step back as he came closer, brushing past him to get to the next cabinet.

"I'm Jason, by the way. You know, Pascal talks a lot. You can never get him to shut up. He was really mad at you. For the book. 'Worse than the devil'? That was a little far, wasn't it?"

"I- I guess. I was-"

"He told me everything. About you, at least. I didn't think Pascal could get that mad. But, I mean, I've only seen him around you guys once. So I guess I really haven't seen much." Jason stopped in front of Florencio, moving slower now. "I mean, he even told me your deep, dark secret."

"Wh-what?" Florencio attempted to back away, succeeding in only smacking into the counter and a cabinet simultaneously. "Ow-mmh-!"

Jason's lips smashed onto Florencio's and his face scrunched up in disgust. He attempted to shove him off, unsuccessfully as Jason was insanely stronger than him. Florencio twisted around in an attempt to move him off, slipping when he twisted and smashing his nose into the counter on the way down. He kicked at Jason's leg, finally making him back away.

Blood poured down Florencio's face from his nose. It covered his hands when he reached up to hold it, the giant pain in his head and nose making him yell. Blood sprayed the floor, dying the floor red.

"Holy shit." Florencio's nose started to swell up as Jason started rambling. "Holy shit, are you ok? What the fuck happened, You just fell, did you break your head?"

Pascal chose that moment to walk in, a brief moment of panic filling him at the sight of the blood and Florencio on the floor, thinking that maybe Jason had killed him before Florencio groaned.

"What the hell happened‽ Good god, Jason what the fuck? What the fuck did you do?" Florencio whimpered in pain as Pascal ran over to him, trying to pull the hand that was clutched to his face away. Florencio's nose was now more swollen, and it was an unattractive purple colour.

"I-I don't know! I kissed him and then he was on the floor! And there was blood everywhere!" Jason defends.

"Oh yeah clearly. I can see that! Florencio? Are you ok?" Pascal turned around to face Jason. "Go call Amelia!"

"Ok! I'm going!" Jason ran out of the kitchen to call her while Pascal tried to see the damage.

Tears ran down Florencio's face while Pascal tried to clean off the blood as much as he could with his sleeve. "Shh, don't cry Flo, It's ok, everything's gonna be ok. We'll get it fixed, I promise. Come here." Pascal pulled him up and brought him over to a chair. He left for a second to get a wet rag and started cleaning up Florencio's face, at least, around the area he was holding with his hands.