COURTED BY THE BANDIT...

CHAPTER 18 - YOU OWE ME MORE THAN AN EXPLANATION

    With all his might, MinZhe got up from his position of leaning over a still flustered JiaoLong. When he heard JiaoLong refer to himself as brother he lost it, he wanted to do something that broke the rules of being brothers, and so he did it, with much satisfaction. He went to drag his chair to the front of the bed and sat on it, crossing his legs and arms staring JiaoLong down.

  JiaoLong laid stupefied on the bed. What... what just happened? He sat up abruptly stared at A'Zhe with wide eyes. He touched his still moist lips and confirmed that yes indeed, he was just kissed by A'Zhe. Embarrassed he picked up the pillow closest to him and hurled it at A'Zhe's face. Of course he made the pillow fly sideways before it hit him without batting an eyelash. JiaoLong who was still in a rage continued to hurl things at him and now obscenities were added to the mix. 

  "You fucking brat! You think you can just mess around with LaoZi like that!? Don't you know something so intimate is only done with someone special!? Are you stupid? since when do you treat your elders like this huh!? Holy shit! What's wrong A'Zhe, I could understand if you were a westerner but you're not! Did you learn to do that to your big brother from some stranger wh-!"

  "JiaoLong." MinZhe said in an oppressive voice, anger tainted those words so much that JiaoLong immediately shut up. "One would think you'd learn from your mistake. Unless you would like me to do again what I just did?"

  "w...What? What are you talking about? what mistake?"

  "Do not refer to yourself as my bigger brother... you are not." A'Zhe said stoically.

  "..." JiaoLong was left without a word. "That's really mean of you A'Zhe... I thought we were close enough to be brothers... clearly not." JiaoLong hung his head a little and his heart felt sorrow. He crinkled his brow and fiddled with the cover underneath him.

  MinZhe saw this sight and his heart twitched, as did something else. JiaoLong's image right now looks like a sad puppy who was abandoned on the side of the road. He couldn't bear to stay silent watching JiaoLong fidget with the sheets with a sad expression. "We were close."

  JiaoLong looked up without raising his head and he felt saddened even more. "Were...? What changed?"

  MinZhe snuggled further into his chair as his eyes grew cold. "I was happy when you were by my side, I thought you were too. You looked after me when no one else would, were nice to me when no one else was, you even cooked for me. And you destroyed that dish before I could even get a taste. And then you disappear ...like it's nothing... you left me and you didn't want to come back. And when I find you still in this world... that just means you didn't want to find me. You left me..." The aura around MinZhe grew worse and worse as he talked and JiaoLong looked helpless as he sat on the bed. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself... Is it fun to give a young child feelings of hope and abandoning them?" MinZhe's hands clenched on the armrest of the chair and creaking sounds could be heard as the wood groaned under pressure. 

  JiaoLong watched the painful emotions flash through his eyes and felt immense guilt. Indeed, to take the role of a guardian for a child who lost their parents at an early age is no simple task, it requires dedication and much care, but the amount of times he had disappeared was not a good thing...  He sighed and lowered his head again before he started speaking. He decided that instead of lying, he will tell him half  truths. "A'Zhe... I... I never meant to leave you but there are...circumstances that can't be avoided..." JiaoLong took a quick second to think of a valid excuse before continuing, "My body is very abnormal, at points of extreme stress and pressure it will disintegrate and...  take me to a safe place to recuperate. And though you couldn't see me A'Zhe, I was watching over you. How you became even more anti social and even started a bad drinking habit when you're angry! You better stop that by the way. I'm sorry for my disappearances... they were uncontrollable but I still should've tried to come to you sooner. When you found me in the city I had just finished recuperating and I was setting out to find you, A'Zhe."