Spring Forward, Fall Back (Alucard x Chubby! Reader)

Chapter 129 - Girls' Night Arrival

Reader P.O.V.

The disaster that was Adrian's bachelor party still rung in my head. Never mind the fact that Trevor was here, although I was truly glad to see him, my guilt over forcing Adrian to go and have it descend into the travesty it became was eating me alive. No matter how many times he told me it wasn't my fault, no matter how the perpetrator apologized over and over again, no matter how the rest of the men who were there told me I shouldn't worry about it, I would sit for hours instead of sleeping and cry about how things turned out for him.

It was only my intention to help him get even more acclimated to this time and give him time with his family (and soon to be father-in-law) to engage in something as simple as the time honored legacy of the bachelor party. It was no problem to me to let him go because I knew what kind of women were there, knew his tastes and knew he loved me more than anything. Our mate bond was strong, but it wasn't that which pulled us together. The mate bond just made that love we had stronger.

"What're you doing?" Simon asked when he walked into the living room.

"Oh, just wallowing in self-pity," I said with a half smile on my lips.

"You really do need to stop that," he responded as he moved into the kitchen. A few soft thuds told me he was about to get a cup of coffee, but he then asked, "Do you want some tea?"

"Please," I answered, "and an apple and the caramel sauce also?" I heard him chuckle and tell me sure before the water ran and a few more cabinets thumped shut. A few minutes later Simon came in with cups, a tea pot, some sugar, milk, spoons, an apple with a knife and the small container of caramel sauce.

"Did you remember to take your stomach medicine?" he asked delicately. "Don't want you to get rid of this as fast as you put it in."

"Oh yeah," I said with a laugh. "Never leave the bedroom without it." The two of us chuckled and spoke for a bit about everything that had been going on for the last few days. And then he emoted a thought that had been rattling around in his head.

"I was so mad at Leo that night at the strip club," he said while staring down into his cup of tea. "I wanted so badly to make Adrian feel like a part of my family, as if I need another brother, but Leo just had to go and fuck that up."

"I'm sure he was having fun up until that point," I said softly while placing my hand on his shoulder. I gave him a squeeze to let him know I wasn't upset and he continued.

"Leo and I didn't really grow up together, ya know? He was always leaving a school right when I'd get in and then pretty much ignore me. And even though we were brothers, everyone looked to him for the master plans. He'd come up with some fucked up idea and everyone would just fall in line."

"Sounds a little bit like my sister," I said with a soft snort of derisive laughter.

"Yeah," he said, "but did your sister ever steal a prospective significant other?"

"Twice."

"Did she ever put shit in your food to make you sick?"

"Nope," I had to admit, "I did all the cooking so she never came to the kitchen."

"Considering how you cook, I'm not complaining," he said with a wide grin. I couldn't stop myself from nudging him a little and returning the smile.

"Leo has always done stupid shit that gets him in trouble, but I think part of that was to get Dad's attention, you know?" he said while staring off into space. "Dad was so busy with me when I was little because I was almost always sick. I was born premature and Mom just kind of up and left when she was strong enough to leave, so Dad was stuck trying like hell to get me healthy, getting tutors for me when I couldn't go to school, doctor visits, specialists in other towns...all sorts of shit. So I think Leo was doing most of his shit to get Dad to acknowledge him and he envied me for having all the attention."