The After Kingdom: UnOrdinary (Arlo x John)

Chapter 16

Arlo had conclusions, but he wasn't sure if he should let anyone know.

John's mother, Volcan, could possibly be linked to NXGen and the bar's owner. Not much information was known about her, other than the fact that she uses fire, which might be linked to the old criminal organization called Ember.

The blond was just a student when Ember started killing super heroes like Rei. He remembered Remi trying to investigate about it in hopes to get justice for her brother, but Arlo forced her to stop doing it because it was dangerous.

A few months after that, Ember's activities have stopped, and the case remained unsolved until now.

Arlo's theory was that Volcan was part of the Ember, and that she knew about her son working at that bar. Since they did 'experiments' on John, NXGen might be connected in a way that they were developing different kinds of drugs, and they were simply providing it to Volcan in exchange of something, Arlo remembered that some of the drinks were infused with something, and since John used to work at that bar, it's possible that they were making him consume a certain drug slowly.

Arlo have observed it before when he was going undercover, how customers like Keon kept on forcing him to drink.

The more he thought of it, the more it made sense. He wanted to have John checked as soon as he can, but he was contemplating since John might see it as a betrayal. If the authorities knew about John, it surely wouldn't end well.

Arlo wanted to bring the topic up, but there was little to no interaction between him and John the whole week. The blond tried initiating conversations with John, but John always cut it short. There haven't been arguements, because the dark haired man tried to reply as short as possible. John seemed to be avoiding him, avoiding eye contacts, and trying not to talk much.

It bothered Arlo that John was avoiding him, but he felt like it might be related to him revealing Arlo about everything.

Things were mixed up in Arlo's mind, his feelings for John, his theories and his hesitation about telling John about everything.

One night, after Arlo's work, he noticed something wrong with John when he arrived home.

John was sitting with his knees close to his face, both of his hands covering his ears. He was trembling a lot, and Arlo couldn't help but be worried.

"John!" Arlo approached him as soon as he can.

John kept trembling, but he lifted his head to look at Arlo.

He looked terrified, his skin pale, and his eyes wide. He looked like he was about to cry, and Arlo didn't know what to do.

"John... Are you alright? What happened?"

"I'm fine." John sat properly, hiding both of his trembling hands on his pockets, "This is nothing."

The dark haired man didn't looked fine to him, in fact, he looked broken, and it was worrying Arlo a lot. The more he sees him like this, the more conflicted he was.

This wasn't the first time he've seen John trembling like this, and at this point, Arlo knew that something really was wrong with John.

The whole night, John acted like he was fine, but Arlo just couldn't dismiss it.

John would meet up with Seraphina tomorrow, but Arlo didn't know if John was ready or not, especially after seeing him like this. Arlo wondered how often this happens to John.

He urged John to sleep earlier since the time of meeting would be at eight in the morning. He wanted John to get enough rest too, since the dark haired man have been having trouble sleeping recently, and unlike before, he was easily woken up by noises.

Arlo have already ordered a mattress, it just arrived two days ago so John had been sleeping there since.

However, in the middle of the night, John crawled up to his bed. He wasn't sure if John was awake or if he was sleep walking, but he felt the dark haired man hugging him with both of his arms. Arlo pretended to be asleep, allowing the other man to hold him.

When Arlo woke up, John was awake. He was no longer hugging Arlo, but he was staring on his face, looking like he's examining every detail.

"John?"

Realizing that he wasn't supposed to be there, the dark haired man quickly stood up, stretching both of his arms.

"You moved in my bed last night?" Arlo asked him.

John looked down, not knowing what to say to the blond. Arlo didn't want to sleep beside him, and he knew that it must have made him uncomfortable. John just felt cold. He was aware of his tendancy to cling onto things whenever he sleeps, but last night, a pillow just wasn't enough-- he felt like he needed warmth.

"If I made you uncomfortable... I won't do it agai--"

"I don't really mind." Arlo sighed, "Anyway, you should take a bath now. We have to leave at seven if we wanted to arrive at eight."

After John headed to take a bath, Arlo made both of them a toast and a coffee. A few minutes after he was done, John approached him, looking like he just finished his bath, a towel covering half of his body with his hair and body moist.

"I'm done now Arlo." he said.

When Arlo turned to him, his eyes met John's. Arlo averted his gaze, but he ended up looking back at him when he noticed John looking down. Arlo observed him, and he realized that John's arms were red just like before, as if he scrubbed himself too hard, or possibly even scratching himself.

"John." Arlo spoke, "Are you okay?"

The dark haired man seemed to be surprised with his question, until he noticed where Arlo was looking.

"I'm fine." he lied again, "Maybe the soap was just too harsh on my skin, the redness should disappear soon."

Arlo didn't seemed to be convinced, and he really wasn't, but still he made John believe that he was. The blond have been noticing details that John may have needed help. Although he knew that John was damaged, he didn't know how deep the damage went. There's no way that Arlo could just ignore all of this. He didn't know if he could help John alone, he knew that the dark haired man wouldn't want to be brought in a psychologist, but what was Arlo even supposed to do?