4 Leaf Clover - ᴹˣᴹˣᴹˣᴹ

6.

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Manna's house was not what Clover anticipated - it was eerily identical to the house he grew up in. The house he left behind was mostly ebony and red bricks with white columns by the front entrance. The garden connected to the house was perfectly maintained, and Clover's father took tremendous pride in his garden. He repeatedly expressed that the way they lived showed how they were as people.

Manna's house was a lavish 2 story house with a suitable few acres of land behind it. Manna drove the both of them to his home, a good 40 minutes away from the station. Clover learned that Manna and his partners had aided in selecting the house for comfort and to make sure they had enough space there. This house was white on the exterior, with columns just as luminous. The windows of the house were enormous with posh timber patterns to divide the glass into 4.

"It's lovely," Clover complimented as he got his backpack out of the car and walked up the pathway to the front door.

Manna chuckled, "You know you don't have to be so polite,"

"What do you mean?" Clover asked, wondering what the officer meant.

"Just because I'm letting you stay, you don't have to be...so proper,"

Clover let a little smile slip onto his face, twisting in a form he guessed he had forgotten he could do. He admitted immediately that it felt like a fresh sensation to just give in to the trim pleasure he felt with Manna. He had forgotten just what it was like to appreciate someone's presence, to be able to converse with them without their breath making him withdraw.

Manna opened the enormous brown wooden door, the stained glass beside each side of the entrance ricocheted rainbows into the passage of the home. Clover couldn't rid of his small smile as he was invited inside quietly - although the exterior was identical to his own house, the inside couldn't have been more diverse. Clover wasn't sure what he was expecting, maybe a crucified Jesus on the wall or a sanctum of the bible verses in the corner of the passageway.

Clover's old home was dark on the inside, numerous corridors in his home were dimly lit and mysterious. A lot of the windows were covered up with lengthy curtains, disguising away the people on the inside. Clover only saw his parents out in the dawning of the day when they sat in the courtyard reading the bible to one another. Manna's house was soaking in the natural light of the day, all the windows had curtains but they were hooked back. The house was warm from the steady stream of sun flooding through the glass of the windows.

Clover looked around calmly; there were no signs of religious imagery, no shrines to idolise the textbook that retained the words of demise for Clover's very existence. Or so his parents told him. Clover despite his age, despite his upbringing, had never read the bible. Another tradition in his family was that the bible could be read and rehearsed alone after betrothal to another. Since Clover wasn't yet wed, his moment to read the bible hadn't come.

He wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, in fact, after running away he acknowledged he might never pick up the book again. He was thankful to finally step into someone else's house without the dread of religious imagery thrust on him, not after the weight of the shame he had carried for years was still on his shoulders. The shame of finding out he liked the idea of being with a guy more than a woman.

"Are you hungry?" Manna broke Clover out of his head, and out of peering over Manna's home as if he honestly had belonged nowhere his whole life.

"Yes please," Clover said politely, slowly following the man into the main kitchen area.

Of course, their home was considerable, definitely enough space for 3. Clover couldn't help but allow his eyes to meander, their kitchen was overfilled with flowers, plant pots and vines sitting above large appliances. Plants with leaves greater than Clover's hands modelled by the open kitchen entrance, so much greenery. The leaves were smooth under Clover's contact, he at least expected them to be fake plants but they weren't.