The escort

1. The things I do for him (Madara)

When I saw the smile on his face as he came home after his first day, I knew I had done the right thing.

I could feel his energy as he came into the little apartment we shared, his black ponytail tousled as if he was a child who came home from the playground, instead of a twenty-four-year-old who came home after his first day at university. He came to me where I sat on the couch, reading, and put his backpack down. 

Then, he threw himself into my arms.

"Thank you", he whispered. "Thank you so much."

I smiled, hugged his little body close to mine as I tried to fight back the tears. I felt him hide his face in my thick, black mane.

"You're so very welcome, Izuna", I said.

In that moment, it almost felt okay lying to him.

Almost...

That evening, I put on my coat to go to work. I double-checked the paper bag containing the champagne bottle; a gift I always provided my clients. I had to hide a small stock of them far inside my closet so that Izuna wouldn't find them.

Izuna, my little brother whom I loved more than anything in the universe, was already sitting at the desk in the corner of our living room, looking inside his textbook and taking notes from it. I felt my heart clench. God... To have that man in my life. I loved him so much.

It had been the two of us for ten years, ever since our parents died in a mall shooting when I was eighteen, and Izuna was only fourteen. Since I was an adult, I had been allowed to take care of Izuna, and we had stayed in our parent's house. It was only last year that we could afford buying our own little place after we had worked hard for years, and we loved the white-painted apartment with wooden floors and high ceilings. The sale of our parents' home left no money for us after their mortgage had been paid for. 

The day we moved into our new place would be the day I decided what to do. Because the first thing Izuna had done when we came in was laying down in his new queen-size bed, fall asleep...

And then stay in bed for two weeks.

He had burned himself out, working himself half to death in a cafe to be able to buy a new place with me. He hadn't said anything, never made me suspect a thing, until he became bed-ridden.

Then, I knew I would do anything, anything, in order to provide Izuna with a proper education, so he could get a job that he loved that didn't burn him at both ends.

Which was why I was now on my way out now with a bag of champagne.

"I'm leaving", I said softly, walking up to Izuna from behind, his hair up in a clip on his head.

Izuna turned, and as I went to him, he leaned his little head on my stomach, and I put a protective hand on his hair.

"Be careful", he said. "I don't like it when you come home so late."

Oh, honey, you have no idea. If you knew what I really did to pay for your education, you would have worried yourself to death.

Which was why I never told him.

"If it's after four am when I get off, I promise to take a taxi", I said, kissing the top of his head.

And I left, taking a bus and walking a short distance to a very posh part of the city, with white buildings that probably looked lovely during the day, but seemed quite eerie in the night.

I walked into the lobby.