The Soldier's Hostage

Chapter Twenty

"Tucker, beschleunigen!"

I sighed and finished yanking on my shoes, hurrying out to meet Arthur at the door. I was responding more to the tone than the words. I had noticed that he would slip into German more and more often. I just couldn't figure out if he was trying to gradually teach me the language or just simply unaware of his slip. From what Katty had told me, it could be either.

Or perhaps my own parroting of what phrases I understood was encouraging him. Granted, most of what I had picked up so far were orders to move along, but Arthur always seemed amused when I did it. I hadn't tried out any of his curse words simply because course language had never been permitted in Sophia's presence. I hesitated to find out the hard way how Arthur felt about them.

His gaze traveled up and down my appearance as I approached, but I couldn't read anything besides impatience. He nodded once in approval as I reached him and turned to lead the way to the elevator.

I followed Arthur into Katty's apartment for movie night. We were early, because Arthur had wanted to talk to Katty, so the place was fairly empty. I strode through on the search for Max, leaving Arthur to his conversation. I was curious about what he wanted, but I figured he would let me know once Katty had spoken with him about it. I stopped dead when I found my friend.

He was curled up in Jason's lap, half asleep. I had never seen him so relaxed without being drugged on pheromones and low on blood. But I didn't see any wounds on his neck. Jason was gently nuzzling him as he whispered soothing words.

I blushed and backed away quickly when I caught a few of those words and found them intimate. Words I had no business eavesdropping on. Jason noticed me and stopped to turn and look at me. "Hey Tucker."

The change of focus brought Max out of it and he raised his head to groggily look at me. There was a tense moment where he just stared. Then he jumped out of Jason's lap and staggered unsteadily to his feet. Jason was quick to steady him, looking between us with confusion.

Max shrugged him off almost unconsciously, hurting Jason's feelings in the process. Max's attention was all on me however. "Tucker!" Max glanced back at Jason and then at me again. I could feel Arthur and Katty coming to see what the matter was. "This isn't what it looks like. I can explain!"

I raised one eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

He swallowed and licked his lips, eyes clearing as the sleepy haze lifted and he focused fully. He wasn't effected by anything. "I promise you I'm not being coerced or drugged or anything like that. I just had some trouble sleeping last night and was trying to take a nap before tonight. Jason was just- I mean we were only-" He bit his lip, trying to gather his thoughts.

I took a deliberate step forward and reached out a hand. Max looked at it in confusion before slowly taking it. I shook it once, firmly. "I'm happy if you're happy." Max let out a breath of relief and relaxed, shooting me a grateful look. I pulled him into me, wrapping him in a tight hug. "You deserve to be happy Max. Don't let anything get in the way."

I looked over Max's shoulder at Jason. "Don't you dare do anything to hurt him or I'll stake you." I pulled away and turned, fixing Katty with a look as well. "You too." I turned back to Max and found him fighting tears. I blinked in surprise, then smiled affectionately at him and ruffled his hair. He shoved me away with a sniffle and leaned back into Jason. I glanced away as Max gave Jason an intimate look, then jumped a little when Jason got up and slapped my shoulder affectionately on his way past me.

Jason, Katty and Arthur wandered back towards the kitchen to talk. I settled on the couch with Max and relaxed. Max looked me over carefully. "You okay?"