The Chains That Bind Him (manXman) Engl.

Chapter Four

Ren had to stop letting their time together devolve to just sex. He wanted a real relationship with Connor, in his own, weird way. Next time he stepped into Connor's room he forced himself to fixate a point above the boy's head. He held out a wide ugly sweatshirt and pants and asked Connor to put them on, but even in these hideous clothes the boy looked scrumptious. The loose clothes were too big on Connor's slender frame, and his fingertips barely looked out of his shirtsleeves, whilst he had to zip a belt around the pants to keep them up.

"Why do I have to wear these when I already have my own clothes?"

Ren ignored the question and deliberately looked at Connor. He tried to put his mind on other things; things that had nothing to do with Connor's very naked, very hot body, but he didn't succeed. With a sigh he decided.

"Would you to try to run away if we were to go outside?"

The answer came without hesitation. "No. I will not do anything that threatens my mother."

With that Ren took the boy out to the café one street over. Forced to act decent around other people, he was finally able to put his plan into motion. He explained the workings of his company to Connor, so he would be able to talk to his mom someday soon. They spent hours in the café and Ren kept ordering small foods and drinks. They repeated those visits, and Ren tried to push the conversation in Connor's direction. He wanted to know more about him. It took a while, but he pieced Connor's story together bit after bit. Ren was certain that the boy was holding something back, but he didn't press him yet. He believed that Connor first started answering his questions out of a weird sense of obligation, but he slowly warmed up to him and gave the information away more freely.

His parents had never been rich. His father was a drunk and his mother was sick a lot. Nobody knew it then, but that was just the start of an interminable illness that had taken her. Connor's father drank away all their money and didn't bring any home himself and when his wife couldn't afford his booze anymore, he left them. All their money went into the rent, schoolbooks for Connor and his mother's doctor bills. Connor soon started to do some minor works around the neighborhood for money to support her, like painting fences and mowing lawns. As soon as he was old enough he quit school and started working. His mother hadn't been able to work anymore at that point in time. He was still hungry for knowledge, and a friend's library card made it possible for him to learn something a night. Soon the amount of work he had to do to keep them afloat made it impossible to keep learning late nights. His mother was hospitalized and without her to force him, he often skipped meals.

Ren thought about his own childhood. He had worked his ass off for this company, but he had the benefit of two loving and supporting parents. Who knew, if Connor had had the same support system as Ren did, he probably would have made it to the very top by now. He was a bright, openminded and strong-willed young man. One of the days Ren was surprised when Connor actually didn't evade his question what he wanted to do, but instead answered shyly.

"You're just going to laugh..."

"I promise I won't. What is it you want to do?"

Connor fidgeted a few more moments before he finally answered. "I heard there was a carnival in town this week. I... I know I'm not a child anymore, but I would like to see something like that for once."

Connor was quite surprised when Renard actually took him to the carnival. Once there, he couldn't stop himself from rushing from one attraction to the other, always followed by a mildly smiling Renard. But Connor didn't care. There were so many things to see! There was a labyrinth full of mirrors, and some of them distorted their shapes into something entirely different. Then there were the roller coasters, were Renard, who had been following him readily to any of the attractions, hesitated, but they were on the ride and through it in a flash. Then there was a street with lots of different performers, and Connor couldn't stop watching and taking in what he saw. After the trapeze-performance, when Connor had seen everything he wanted to see, he headed straight for the attraction he saved for last: the Ferris wheel. While they were waiting in line, he noticed a certain uneasiness about Renard. He seemed almost... nervous. Connor didn't think much of it at first, but when the little cabin they were in set in motion Renard just cursed silently and cowered down in the middle of the cabin, eyes aimed at the floor.