MANIACAL | TRACOB

Seven.

A few hours later, the kitchen was three quarters of the way clean. Troye's knees hurt from being against the hardwood, and his pretty yellow dress was not so pretty or yellow anymore. His sensitive hands were basically raw in some places from the cleaners, but he was too scared to say anything to Jacob. He just cried quietly to himself while he worked, thinking of home and how much he missed taking Jagga on walks. He missed Jacob too, when he thought about it. Not this Jacob, but the old Jacob. He missed feeling safe next to him and he missed excitedly talking to him about what he had done that day for schooling. He missed school, which was something he did not think he would ever be saying. Laurelle had homeschooled him. All of these things he was missing, and it had not even been a full forty eight hours.   Jacob had left him alone in the kitchen, saying that he needed to go to the basement and mess with the pipes a bit. They were still without running water, which was annoying. Not that it would make Troye much more comfortable, but it would be nice to use the indoor bathrooms and wash his hands and the dirt off of his knees.   The blue eyed boy stood up after finishing the last cabinet. There had been a lot, as it was a large kitchen with a lot of storage.

He brushed his sore hands off on his clothes, wincing at the feeling. The cleaner would not have hurt most people, but he had very sensitive skin and always had. Even finding body wash that would not hurt him was difficult. He picked up his bucket of water and carried it out the door that had been propped open, walking out a little ways away from the door and dumping it. He went back to the door and flipped the bucket upside down, leaning it against the concrete step so it could dry. He went back into the house and grabbed a dry rag and the furniture polish, spraying some of it onto the cloth and beginning to rub it into the surface of the table that he had already scrubbed clean. He did this to the table and to all four chairs around it, making sure that every bit of it was clean and shining.

Troye dropped the rag as he heard Jacob coming into the room, scrambling back. The hazel eyed man frowned, but stayed quiet about Troye's behaviour. "It looks good in here," he said, looking around the room. Troye did not move, not even blinking. "We just have to do the floor now, I guess." Troye still stayed still, only moving when he flinched from Jacob simply moving his hand. "I'm not going to hurt you," Jacob sighed. "I'm protecting you, and I know that it will take you a while to understand that but I just want to take care of you, Troye."

"You took me from my family," Troye whispered, his blue eyes staring into Jacob's hazel. "You took me from Jagga. From my friends. From everything I had."

Jacob bit his lip, thinking about what to say. "I. . . I know that it seems that I'm being selfish," he started, "but we both know that your dad would never let me be with you. If I even mentioned wanting a relationship with you, he would fire me so quickly. I would not just you, I'd lose my job too. And Troye. . . You're eighteen. People will expect you to grow up and I don't want you to. I want to help you, help you live the way you want to."

"I can grow up, I can get a job and be successful, just like anyone else."

"I know that you can, but I also know that you don't want to."  Troye frowned, finally breaking the eye contact and letting his gaze drop to the floor.

"I just want to go home," he said, his voice quieter than it had been before. Jacob said nothing more, turning and walking out the door, leaving Troye to stand and stare at the worn floorboards. That is exactly what Troye did, too. He had the grain in the old wood memorized by the time Jacob came back into the house. Jacob stood still in the doorway for a moment, just looking at the small framed boy.

"Come with me," he said finally. Troye hesitated, but gave in. What else was he to do? Jacob could easily pick him up and carry him to wherever he wanted and Troye would have no say. Troye slowly and tensely followed Jacob up the stairs, stopping in the hallway outside of the bedroom that Jacob had already entered. "Well don't just stand there. You have worked hard, you need to rest."

"No I don't," Troye muttered. He stepped backwards when Jacob stepped towards him. He continued to do this until he was flat up against the wall with nowhere to go. Jacob reached out and grabbed onto his arm, triggering a whimper from Troye.

"I won't hurt you," he said again. He pulled Troye forward before looking he finally noticed how irritated Troye's hands looked. His eyes widened as he picked Troye's arms and looked over his hands. "What-"

"It's nothing, I'm fine."

"No you're not. You're hurt."

"I'm fine, it's just how my skin is."

"Does it hurt?"

Troye hesitated.

"See? I told you that you were hurt. We need to take care of this."

And so they went straight back down the stairs and out to the car. Jacob made Troye hold his hands out while he wiped them clean and dried them off. He then grabbed some Aloe Vera gel that he had for some reason, spreading it over Troye's hands. Troye was slightly annoyed at the sticky feeling, but he did not say anything as Jacob shoved all of his things back into the bag that was in the back seat. "Better?" Troye nodded. "Good. Now you need to go rest." Troye stared at his hands as Jacob steered him back into the house and upstairs. "Go ahead and get changed, your dress needs to be washed."

Troye nodded, waiting for Jacob to leave before he hurried to change. He wanted to be fully dressed before Jacob came back in. He let his dress fall to the floor and pulled his shorts on, followed by his shirt. He kicked the dress towards the door and got onto the bed, almost laying down before deciding against it. He was already vulnerable enough, laying down would only make things worse.

Jacob came into the bedroom a few minutes later, a glass in his hand. There was some sort of pink liquid in it. He walked over and held the glass out to Troye. "Strawberry milk," he said simply. Troye did not move to take it. Strawberries had always  been such a sweet thing that he associated with Jacob. Now he was scared to even accept a drink from him. "You need to drink something or you will end up dehydrated. Neither of us want that to happen. There's nothing for you to worry about, it's not like I drugged it. It's just plain, strawberry flavoured soy milk, which I know is your favourite."

Troye desperately wanted to turn Jacob down, but he could not bring himself to. He was thirsty, he had not drank anything but some water on the way to town that morning. Troye slowly reached out and snatched the glass from Jacob, bringing it to his lips. He was super careful not to spill it, who knows how Jacob would react if he did. He quickly drank all of the milk, thrusting  the glass back into Jacob's hand and snapping his own hand back.

"That was fine, see?" Jacob muttered. He set the glass down on the bedside table and sat on the bed, causing Troye to scurry back so fast he almost fell off the edge. "I've told you that I'm not going to hurt you."

"How can I trust you?" Troye said back.

Jacob sighed. "I guess we will just have to work on that, right? You are not leaving any time soon, so you may as well get over it."

"I want to go home."

"And I want you to stop saying that. Come here."

"I don't want to," Troye whispered.

"Troye. . ."

The small boy whimpered, his bottom lip coming out like it did whenever he was upset.

"Oh come on darling, don't look like that," Jacob's voice softened. "I just want you to be happy. You have such a nice smile, you don't need to pout." Troye sniffled, giving into Jacob's soft tone and crawling over to him. "Good boy," the older man said, smoothing out Troye's curls. "Now go ahead and rest, I'll stay right here with you."

-

QOTC:

how do you feel about how troye is trying to handle the situation?

this is short and im not very happy with it but idk what else i could fit in so

ill update again soon!

have a good day frens owO

-Dylan xx

(follow me on instagram @ wellillbedahmed cause im cool)