Leather and Lace

On His Knees: Part 2

Victor

As I walk into the kitchen, North and Silas are manning the stove, busily preparing breakfast. North is in charge of the bacon and eggs, while Silas cooks the pancakes. Marc was making coffee. Owen, Sean, and Axel are seated at the kitchen island talking about some Academy business, while Corey and Kota are leaning over a laptop. Sighing, I walk over to the island and sit down. The table is quickly filled with plates of food and mugs of coffee, which get passed around as soon as they are set down.

"So, what was that yesterday?" I ask North. Everyone looks at him expectantly.

He scanned each of our faces. "Nothing," he grunted.

Axel rolled his eyes and said, "That wasn't nothing, North, or should I say—"

"Shut up." North looked as if he wanted to grab Axel by the shirt and strangle him. I watched Owen, a little alarmed by the fact that he didn't reprimand North for his attitude—not even the Doc would say anything. I've noticed tension between the three of them whenever they were in a room together. I would mention it but I didn't want things to become any more strained than they already are. I'll leave that to Kota.

"And what about you?" I directed the question to Silas. Silas leaned his head on his hand, and I saw the muscles in his jaw clench.

"I don't know. It just felt right with Aggele." He answered with a lowered head. He smiled and turned to face North, saying, "Although what happened with you was fascinating."

North rolled his eyes and grumbled, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Talk about what?" Nathan yawned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Luke and Kota followed behind him. Kota headed straight to the team liaisons, and I couldn't help but notice Owen's fingers clenching around his mug.

"We're talking about how North—" North shoved a piece of bacon into Silas' mouth before he could finish.

"Skase!"

Nathan leaned close to me and whispered, "Since when did he become a chatterbox?"

"Since Cupcake gave him some sugar and wrapped her arms around the beanstalk," Luke chimed in. "Hey, have you guys seen Gabe? I woke up and he wasn't in bed."

I shrugged. "I haven't seen him since yesterday."

"Now that I think about it, Brandon was missing this morning too," Nate shared.

The three of us shared a look. I turned towards Corey and asked, "Hey Cor, does your brother usually get up early?"

"Not really, why?"

"Well, Nate said he wasn't in bed, and apparently Gabe has gone missing too."

Raven decided to stumble in at that moment, thankfully wearing clothes. There's one incident we all don't want a repeat of. He wrapped his arms around Corey and gruffly mumbled out a greeting.

Corey started looking a bit worried and opened his mouth to answer when we got interrupted by a door shutting and someone shouting, "Mom?"

We looked at each other with the same question reflecting in our eyes: "Mom?"

A boy entered the room who appeared to be 12 or 13. He had striking green eyes and curly blond hair. He was dressed in black jeans and a simple black shirt. Why does he look familiar?

Our staring was cut short when Owen started choking on his coffee. "Owen!" Sean stood closer to him and roughly patted his back. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Sean," Owen replied, but his gaze was focused on the kid. "It's like going back in time," he whispered or at least tried to. Judging from how Axel's head snapped first to Doc and then to the boy, it's safe to say we all heard him. Then, Dominique and Xavier walk into the kitchen, both sans shirts.