COMPLETED | Take Me Down The Rabbit Hole (BDSM | 18+)

LXIV

A/N

The timeline in this is a bit wonky, but by continuing this chapter, you agree to NOT bring up the wonky timeline.

Genuine warning in this chapter for mentions of unhealthy family relationships and death of a parent through cancer.

*

"I give up," Aspen declared.
Thea looked up from their sketchpad. "On what?"
Aspen kicked his shoes off and trotted across the living space to the couch Thea was sitting on. "Trying to make sense of things. Like Alan."
Thea put their sketchpad on the couch table, but on the page wasn't cake.
Before Aspen could make further sense of the page's content, Thea covered the page with a magazine.
Aspen leaned back against the backrest. "I thought that, maybe, if I tried, I could learn something about Alan and his ulterior motives. Why it was me he picked instead of literally any other lawyer in this city."
Thea only hummed.
"I thought that maybe Leo could help."
"At first I thought so too."
Something about the tone of their voice made Aspen sit up and look at them. "At first," he echoed.
"Nobody knew Alan better than my brother did... at some point."
Aspen sat next to them, and the longer he looked at them, the longer he examined their features, the more he felt like a giant cloud of sadness had done up above them and it was hailing down on them.
Instinctively, Aspen waved his hand through the air. "Turns out your brother is an asshole." Aspen smacked his lips together. "And you've been telling me that since I first met him."

For the past month and a half, Aspen had shadowed other employees at Aphrodite as they engaged in their profession, and the more he realized that he had made a fatal mistake. He had fallen, slowly but surely, a victim to Leopold Silva's antics.
"Stay away from my brother, he's like a mad scientist. He'll screw with your brain and turn it inside out and upside down if you're not careful."
Leo had fucked back off to another state, and it was as if someone had shut off the cameras, and big brother was watching no longer.
Aspen had become the watcher, actually, and it was now that he looked at Thea, he realized that he never wanted to stoop to Leopold's level.
"I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."

Thea gave him a sad smile. "He's my brother," they said softly. "And I love him, but he's..." They trailed off. "We had a hard childhood, and I think he became so obsessed with never being like our father that he ..."
Instinctively, Aspen hugged Thea. "You don't have to give up private information about your upbringing," he said softly.
Thea scoffed into his shoulder. "But I do. My brother became an antihero in his own narrative. You know— Someone who has good intentions but goes about things entirely the wrong way."
They made no move to break the hug. "Do you remember how I said I wanted to be a sex therapist?"
"Yes," Aspen said slowly.
"Well," Thea started. "I didn't get to do that because of my father." A short moment of silence. "He was a white man who didn't quite cope with the reality of having a Mexican wife and mixed children. He became obsessed with the idea of having a perfect family. It didn't work out in his favor and it drove a divide into our family. Leo and I definitely didn't walk away from that experience unscathed. But we don't talk about that." Thea shook their head at that as if an unwelcome thought was about to buzz close enough to their face to make it into their brain and lodge itself there among all the other doubt that Aspen could see on their face. "Anyway, my father wanted me to do something proper. He ended up getting cancer and stayed alive just long enough to threaten me into not letting me have access to my College fund if I didn't follow that wish. So I enrolled in College for finance, just to get the money."
Finally, Thea pulled away and Aspen reached for the box of tissues on the side table, offering them one.
"I tried for a semester, but I was absolutely miserable. I wasn't made to sit still in lecture halls and all that. At the time, Leo and I texted every so often, but I remember calling Leo crying the night before my first exam. He helped me get out and enrolled me in pastry school. And then later when he graduated and opened Aphrodite he approached me and said we could probably make a lot of money in the professional field. I suppose it was the next best thing to being a sex therapist."
"You said your parents didn't speak to Leo for a while."
Thea nodded. "My father died before I graduated while Leo was getting into setting Aphrodite up. He knew about the whole thing, and also obviously about all the things Leo and I got up in order to be what we are today. He wasn't pleased with all, which ultimately cemented Leo's belief that he was doing the right thing." Thea blew their nose. "I told my mom and ... my papa that I was going to be baking full time. I finished up my education at the pastry school and Leo helped me set up my baking business, but I quickly realized that Aphrodite was taking up more of my time, so now my baking business has become a cover story for when people ask what I do."
Before Aspen could ask, Thea added, "My mom remarried and her new husband legally adopted us."

Thea got up from the sofa. "I," they started and then looked at the kitchen on the other side of the apartment. "Leo did teach you how to make cafe de olla, right?"
Their voice had changed again. A minute difference, really, but Aspen could tell Thea was trying to bottle up again.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Shall I—?"
Thea nodded. "I'm just gonna go freshen up in the bathroom. Maybe after we could make some cupcakes? I never taught you, and you wanted to learn—"
"I'd love that," Aspen said eagerly. But what I'd love even more is to deck Leo.

When Thea returned from the bathroom, Aspen had filled the cafe into mugs. "Thea," he said softly. "May I ask you something... private?"
Thea squared their shoulders. "Sure."
"Do you feel indebted to Leo and his... savior complex?"
Thea almost doubled over with laughter. When they recovered, they said, "Sometimes."
They began rummaging through cupboards and setting a bunch of labeled containers on the work surface. "On bad days. Leo has a habit of underestimating people and sometimes it shows."
They added a small box from a drawer to the containers and gestured at Aspen. "First step: Find the recipe card."
Aspen opened the box. "Has Leo ever gone to therapy?"
"No."
"Have you?"
"Yes," Thea responded, and Aspen could feel their breath at his neck as they both stood bent over the recipe card box. "You?"
"I went in High School when my parents... separated — They're still legally married but ... well it wasn't the greatest experience for us as a family. If we even are that, anymore — and I still go every three months in case anything comes up."

Aspen finally pulled a card from the box. "Lemon meringue cupcakes," he declared, "With lemon curd filling."
"Oho," Thea made. "Very advanced for a beginner baker."
Aspen smiled. "I learn quick, and I know you're an excellent teacher."
"That's very sweet of you, pet." Thea snatched the card from his hands and went back to the cupboards for more ingredients. "Do you talk to your therapist about kink?"
Aspen hesitated. "No."
Thea laughed. "You should, because if your therapist is kink-friendly I'll get Leo to schedule with them."
"He doesn't strike me like the person who would let you schedule him a therapy appointment," Aspen mumbled and waited until Thea had joined him again to arrange the ingredients step-by-step.
"He'll go if Noah puts it in his calendar. And yes, Noah is fully authorized to schedule our appointments, even if they are personal."
Aspen began measuring the flour. "Fine, I'll see if my therapist is kink-proof at the next best opportunity, and I'll keep you posted."

Thea elbowed him in the side, and they worked silently next to each other on the cupcakes, lemon curd filling and the meringue topping — the latter of which mostly ended up on Aspen's face when Thea attacked him with the piping bag, but Aspen didn't mind. For the first time in a while, since he had accidentally pulled an all-nighter to read a Luna Luther book, he felt like he could switch his brain off.