Servant of Lust

Chapter 17

I wake up some time during the night, because James is tossing and turning. I look at the clock as I turn on the bedside lamp and am astonished when I see that I slept for a few hours straight. Must be the influence of James. I turn around and focus on the cute blonde, who's whimpering in his sleep. I sigh and prop myself up to lean over him.

"James, cutie, please wake up, you're having a nightmare." I shake him softly until he wakes, jolting up. "Shh, it's okay."

He blinks a few times until he focuses his gaze on me.

"With me again?" I ask.

He nods. "Yeah, just dreamt some weird stuff. Actually I dreamt that i woke up from all this here and realised that I'm back there with Jeff and the other men." James shudders and looks away from me.

"But you aren't James, you need to realise it and I'm going to help you. It takes time but you can do it" My voice is soft but firm.

"I know, Mitch" he returns. "Maybe getting a fresh start out of Chicago will help."

I smile. "Believe me, the warm sun of Los Angeles can work magic."

He chuckles. "I bet. And it's really okay if I come with you? After all I'm broke and I don't have a job or any education that goes further than a highschool degree."

"Please don't doubt yourself that much. I want to take you back home with me. Really." I kiss the tip of his nose and he grins at the gesture. "I'll take care of you until you figure out what you want to do with your life. I'm still earning some money with my old career and Scott has already talked about relaunching Pentatonix. Apparently he made some kind of pact with the others that we're going to try a comeback if I'm back and sober."

"That would be lovely, Mitch! I'd love to see you perform again."

I sigh. "It's not that easy. I haven't met anyone but Scott, yet and I still haven't tried to sing. I'm afraid that I lost the ability to do so after taking all the drugs and drinking too much."

James caresses my cheek softly. "You didn't loose your voice, Mitch. It will be a little bit rusty maybe and you'll need to get some training but it will be there."

"What are you, a vocal coach" I snap at him. I gasp and put a hand in front of my mouth. "Sorry, it's just all the pressure and the fact that I'm doubting myself."

"It's okay. We both have our problems. Maybe we should just sleep it off for the moment. We'll figure everything out once we're both well rested."

"Plus we could be waking up little Scotty over there on the sofa" I joke back. "Come cuddle?"

"Always."

~~~~~~~

We sleep in the next morning, only waking up when Scott starts making breakfast.

"Morning, Scott" I mumble and look up, my brown eyes meeting clear green ones. "Morning James, you're already awake?"

He nods. "Yeah, I woke up when Scott go up. You looked too cute, dreaming, drooling and stuff."

"Drooling? I don't drool!"

"You do!" Scott called over.

I glare at Scott who just grins to himself and resumes with his task of cutting up fruits, throwing them into the blender.

I wipe at my mouth, hearing James chuckle. I stick my tongue out at him but i'm not angry or so. It's good to be able to laugh with him. I lean over to kiss his cheek.

"So, now that everyone had a possibility to laugh at me, let's move on. James, I want to look at your wounds again. Scott bought new ointment for them yesterday. Well and maybe we can combine that with a shower or a bath?"

James nods. "Shower? Or bath? What will hurt less?"

"The shower here is fairly soft, you should try it. I'll help you."

Together we go into the huge bathroom. I pull all the bandages from his wounds and help him into the shower, getting inside together with him. I clean him up and try to avoid all the little and not so little parts where his skin is broken. He hisses and whimpers occasionally and I'll try to soothe him with humming mindlessly.

It works and soon we're both clean. I get dressed quickly and get some of my clothes out for him. Since he's become skinny they'll probably fit.

I rub ointment on his body for the bruises and the wounds. This time he helps me with his front and we're finished in no time.

He dresses up in sweatpants and a shirt of me and we go over to the kitchen area together.

"You two hungry?" Scott is preparing pancakes and has already a three huge smoothies set on the counter.

"Yes" we both say in unison, grinning at each other.

Scott shakes his head in amusement and puts the finished pancakes on a plate.

We enjoy the delicious breakfast in the living room and make plans to go back to Los Angeles as soon as we can catch a flight. James's body is still sore and the plain ride will be tough for him, yet he's sure that he can manage it. He's yearning to get out of this town where he lost his Mum and where he actually has nobody. I just hope that everything will work out. I mean we've been spending time together back at the brothel, we were always there for each other. But it was always just the two of us in a closed off space, in our own world. Now I'm taking him into my world. How will being free together work out? Plus we're both broken in a way and the responsible is saying that all of this can either go completely right or end in a disaster.

~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Usually I take a break from writing on thursdays and spend the whole day either working in the store, cleaning or doing university stuff, depending on my work schedule. BUT this little baby just hit 1k reads!!

It's not much compared to other writers, but I'm just happy if even only a handful of people read this.

I hope you enjoyed this little filler, transitory kind of a chapter and will be with me for the rest of the ride!