The Title Will Go Here - 22. Chapter 22

- XXII -

He made his way to the front door and stopped when he got close enough to Robert, who was still sitting on the floor.

“Knife,” he ordered unemotionally, slightly stretching his arm in an ‘I-am-waiting’ gesture, and Robert slowly looked up, his eyes narrowed. He sat still without moving a muscle for two or three seconds, as if weighing his options. Finally, he let out a slow exhale and reached for the knife he still had tucked into the back of his pants. Even if he were in a better shape than he was at the moment, he wouldn’t be sure about an outcome of a face-off between him and Leon – there was a good reason Stratos would only hire standard security for his performances and not a personal bodyguard.

He handed the knife to Leon, feeling regretful about the virginal, blood-free blade that he had purchased a week ago just for this occasion, his fingers unwilling to let go of the leather sheath, and Leon easily pulled it out of his grasp and tucked it into the back of his own pants.

“Get up,” he said as unemotionally, and Robert craned his neck a bit more to be able to meet the other man’s gaze.

“You know,” he said thoughtfully. “You were the last person I expected to do something like this... I mean...” Here he smiled again. “I know that you hate him... You hate him almost as much as I do, I know that,” he nodded without looking away from Leon’s darkening eyes. “When I saw you here, I was excited, since I figured you’d be... Oh, I don’t know...” he sighed. “...grateful...?” He shrugged. “We are kindred souls, Leon... Two of a kind... Peas in a pod...” He seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that Leon’s hands rolled into tight fists.

“I am nothing like you,” Leon said quietly. “Get up,” he said again, and Robert blinked and slowly stood up. “Yes, maybe I do hate him...” Leon continued without looking away from the slightly slanted eyes.

Robert smiled at the word ‘maybe.’ Leon ignored that.

“Maybe I do,” he continued. “But I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that Stratos doesn’t lose him.”

“Why?” Here Robert frowned with genuine confusion.

“Because I sorted out my priorities,” Leon said as quietly as before. “Now get out... Stratos is on his way back, and believe me, you do not want to be here when he walks through that door...”

“Stratos I can handle...” Robert said in a low, disdained voice, and Leon let out a very strange, laughing sound.

“That’s what everyone thinks,” he muttered. “And believe me...” He slightly shook his head. “You can’t...!”

Robert snorted at that.

“Of course,” he shrugged. “If both of you are going to jump me...”

“Both of us?” Leon interrupted him, his eyebrows slightly raised. He let out another laughing sound. “Hell, no! Believe me, I will make sure that I am as far as possible from this place when he starts tearing you apart, because there is a very good chance of him losing control when he is in this condition, and if that happens, then it’s gonna hit everyone who happened to be in the radius... And since he hasn’t used it in a long time...” He nodded. “Yeah, I am going to run as fast as my legs can possibly carry me!”

“What...?” Robert muttered with a very confused expression, and Leon let out a frustrated, impatient sigh.

“Never mind,” he said sharply. “Get out! And a little piece of advice...? Stay the fuck away from him,” he nodded towards the bedroom. “Get out!” he said louder when Robert tried responding to that with another smirk.

Knox looked at him for almost a minute, his expression very thoughtful, and then he smiled again and walked out of the door without looking back or saying anything else. Leon took a deep breath and stood still for a little while, and then suddenly, he straightened up and frowned. He remembered why he came here in the first place – that mini-earthquake. He still didn’t know what the hell it was. The foyer and the bedroom seemed fine, so that left the kitchen and the bathroom. He discarded the bathroom almost immediately – it was farther away from the wall that separated their rooms – and quickly walked towards the kitchen. When he got there, he came to a stumbling, shaky stop, and stared at something with the unblinking, disbelieving eyes.

The refrigerator that was sitting in the farthest left corner of the kitchen was now slammed against the opposite wall, in the opposite corner, almost blocking the entrance, right in front of the stunned man. The door of the fridge was facing to the right, as if the fridge was spinning around right before it smacked into the wall.

Leon took a very slow step towards the chromium refrigerator and tried pushing it. The refrigerator wouldn’t even budge. Leon frowned and pushed harder, trying to move it at least an inch farther. He received the same result and lowered his arms.

“Holy shit...” he muttered and slightly jerked when he heard:

“Gem, it’s me! Why is the door unlocked?”

He took another deep breath and turned his head.

“Here...” he called, and closed his eyes when he heard quick steps.

“Leon?” he heard a puzzled voice and opened his eyes. “What are you doing here? Where is...”

Stratos stopped talking when he saw the refrigerator. He stared at it for maybe two seconds, and then his face became suddenly pale, as if his mind made a very obvious connection. He looked at silent Leon.

“Where is he?” he asked quietly.

“Stratos...” Leon started saying, but it seemed that the musician didn’t even hear him.

“Where is he?” he repeated in the same eerie voice.

“Stratos, just take a deep...”

“Where is he?” The voice became even quieter, and Leon’s eyes darted towards the bedroom.

Stratos turned around without saying anything else and walked towards it. When he got close enough to be able to see, he froze in his tracks, standing rigidly-still. He stared at the bed without making a single sound, and finally, let out a very sharp, quick exhale.

Gemini’s eyes immediately flew open and he turned his head. They looked at each other for several long seconds, neither one of them saying a single word, and then Gemini’s eyebrows shot closer together in a tight frown, and his mouth twisted into a hard, trembling line, as if he was trying to lock all his tears behind his eyelids. It didn’t work, and all those tears broke every single restraint of his, silently escaping the prison of his eyelashes. That brought Stratos back to life.

“Gem...” he muttered and stumbled towards the bed.

Leon leaned on the wall next to the door without saying anything, watching both of them with the dark, gloomy eyes. Stratos sat down on the bed and grabbed Gemini’s arms, pulling him up. He wrapped his own arms around the shaking body in front of him, and started to shake as well. He slowly ran his fingers through the messed up hair and whispered:

“Shhh...! Shhh...!”

Leon closed his eyes for a second when he heard that.

“Shhh...!” Stratos said again, ignoring the fact that Gemini’s blood was getting onto his clothes. He didn’t even notice that. “Shhh...!”

He kept saying that, slowly running his fingers through the messed up hair, and several minutes later, he pulled away just a little, and carefully grabbed Gemini’s chin, slightly raising his head, so he could see his face. He shook harder when he saw it, and leaned closer, placing very light, careful kisses on every inch of the battered face, whispering “Shhh...!” after each kiss.

Finally, he straightened up and slowly ran his finger underneath Gemini’s eyes, wiping away the tears. After doing that, his hand dropped down, and he turned his head very slowly towards a silent Leon who was still leaning against the wall.

“What did you do...?” he asked quietly, and Leon blinked at that several times and straightened up.

“Wait, what...?” he said with disbelief.

“What did you do?” Stratos repeated in the same quiet, lifeless voice without looking away.

“Me?” Leon asked incredulously. “You think I did this? Stratos...”

“What did you do?” Stratos said again, and this time, there was a very unpleasant cold sensation crawling down Leon’s spine – it seemed that the musician didn’t hear a single word that he just said.

“Stratos...” he started saying slowly without looking away from the very dark blue eyes, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything else, interrupted by another:

“What did you do?” Stratos slightly paused and slowly stood up. “And even better question, why?” he said, and his expression scared the shit out of Leon.

“Stratos...” he said quicker, knowing very well where this was heading. “Stratos, listen to me...”

“You know what and how much he means to me, so why did you do this?”

Yeah, Leon was right – Stratos hadn’t heard a single word that came out of Leon’s mouth. Leon took a very small step back, pressing himself into the wall, and looking into the darkening eyes without blinking.

“Stratos...”

Stratos’ expression suddenly became very tense, and Leon’s eyes darted towards the door. No, there was no way in hell he’d be able to get out in time, he knew that. Well, shit...

“Stratos, I didn’t do this!” He said louder, knowing that he was wasting his breath right now – Stratos didn’t hear him. “Goddammit, Stratos, listen to me!” he yelled and dug his fingers into the wall behind him.

The blue eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and all of a sudden, there was that very familiar, dreaded high-pitched whining in the air. Leon squeezed his eyes shut when that whining started prickling his head from the inside with quick, sharp, unpleasant kicks. He knew that it was only a matter of a very short time before this whining would explode into a terrifying cacophony of nightmares, and prickling would turn into whipping blades.

He sort of knew what it would feel like – ten years ago, he kept bugging Stratos to let him experience it for at least a second, just so he would have an idea. Stratos gave him a very firm ‘no-way-in-hell’ answer, but Leon was not the one to give up easily. He kept bugging him for a week straight, and then Stratos finally gave up and said that fine, he’d do it, but he would absolutely not use the full force. Leon snorted at that, thinking that Stratos definitely exaggerated the power of his ability – after all, how can you seriously damage someone with mere sounds? Music could be a weapon, but never too harmful or let alone, lethal, as Stratos insisted. Stratos and Lethal would never mesh in his head. Stratos and Meek? Sure. Stratos and Avoidance? Absolutely. Stratos and Mellow? Definitely. Stratos and Lethal? No way in hell! Yeah, sure, he could get mad, but even then, the worst that would happen would be a hissy fit and nothing more. A lethal or even remotely painful ability in Stratos was downright impossible.

So that day, after Stratos asked him about ten times whether Leon was ready, he finally reached for whatever-the-hell streams he had to work with. This high-pitched whining came first, and Leon almost started laughing in his most obnoxious, mocking manner, when all of a sudden, that whining exploded into something absolutely nightmarish. Whatever it was, it wasn’t music. Hell, those hardly even qualified for sounds!

Stratos released him three seconds later, but even in that short amount of time, Leon felt like he was about to start bleeding out of his eyes. Holy shit, he kept thinking after that day. It wasn’t full force? Stratos told him before the experiment that he would never use full force on him, not even for three seconds. He said he would only use half.

Leon was absolutely positive that he would never want to experience what full force would feel like, except right now, it seemed he would experience it anyway and definitely for longer than three seconds.

“Stratos, stop...” he groaned desperately, receiving no answer, just as he expected.

Gemini looked at the scene with rapidly growing confusion. Stratos stood still, his eyes narrow, facial expression absolutely lifeless, and Leon looked like he was about to be skinned alive. He looked at Stratos again. Even though he stood rigidly still, he was definitely doing something, and whatever it was, it was far from pleasant.

He reached for Stratos’ hand, almost falling off the bed as he did that.

“Don’t...” he said, and hated his weak whisper of a voice. He cleared his throat. “Don’t...” he said louder. “Stratos, whatever you are doing, stop...!”

He grasped the rigid hand tighter when there was absolutely no reaction from Stratos, and shook it as hard as he could.

“Stratos, don’t...! Stratos, stop...!” He could finally use his full voice, he realized. “Stratos...! He didn’t do this! He helped! He helped...! Don’t...!”

Suddenly, the rigid hand in his grasp twitched a few times, and then Stratos blinked very rapidly for several seconds, as if he was trying to wake up. Finally, he stopped blinking and turned his head towards Gemini.

“He helped...” Gemini said again, a little quieter now. “He helped...! Don’t...!”

“He...” Stratos muttered, and suddenly, his expression changed.

He snapped his head to the left, staring at a very pale Leon without blinking, and his eyes were terrified, as if he realized what he just almost did.

“Fucking hell, Gregorio...” Leon said very weakly, his heart thumping a frantic gigue against his ribs. “Next time, give me at least a shadow of benefit of the doubt...” He coughed. “Better yet...” he looked at the silent musician. “Make it so there is no next time! Goddammit...”

He straightened up and tried letting go of the wall. Then he changed his mind – he shook too damn much to be able to stand on his own right now. He took a very shaky breath, trying to calm down his heart, warily thinking that if it kept convulsing at this rate, he would probably end up having a heart attack.

He was somewhat relieved when his heart finally stopped trying to break out of his ribcage a couple of minutes later, and he let his back to relax just a little.

“Leon...” Stratos muttered with the same terrified look in his eyes. “Leon...”

“Ah, shut up,” Leon grimaced and weakly waved his hand at him. “Just shut up...”

“Leon...”

“I said shut up,” Leon nodded without raising his voice. “We’ll be okay... At least you were able to stop...”

“Leon, I...”

“Yeah, you will have to make up for this big time,” Leon interrupted him and straightened up. “You can start doing it by buying me a new pair of pants... Shit, Stratos...” he shook his head. “Get me some water, would you? I am thirsty as hell... Wonder why,” he added darkly, and Stratos finally blinked.

“Uh...” he said. “Yeah...”

He left the room, and Leon took another deep breath and closed his eyes.

“What was that?” he heard a tentative voice and opened his eyes. Gemini looked at him without blinking. He sighed.

“That was his ability,” he said, briefly noting that he was actually talking to this damn kelari and that for some twisted reason, he did not in fact, hate every single second of it. “His horrible nightmare of ability... You know that he has one, right?”

“Yeah,” Gemini said softly. “He said it was a music thing...”

Leon snorted at that.

“Music thing my ass,” he grumbled. “Whatever it is, it’s not music...! Wait...” he slightly narrowed his eyes. “Didn’t you feel it? You were right next to him; you should’ve felt something...”

“No...” Gemini slowly shook his head, his expression confused again. “I didn’t feel anything...”

Leon blinked at that with slight amusement.

“Huh,” he said. “Even after not using it all these years, he still can keep his control... Even when he is so pissed... I’ll be damned...”

He sighed and looked into the swollen golden eyes again.

“He doesn’t use it often,” he said calmly. “Thank God for that... The last time he used it was five years ago. He only unleashes it on someone if there is nothing else left and if everything is about to go to hell... The last time he used it, he did lose control... That son of a bitch hit everyone in the goddamn radius...” He nodded without clarifying who or what exactly was the mentioned son of a bitch – Stratos’ ability or Stratos himself. “He said that the longer he lets it to stay dormant, the harder it gets to control it... I guess that he’d rather drop dead first than to let it to even touch you though,” he finished darkly and looked up when he heard footsteps.

“Leon, I am...” Stratos started saying when he walked into the room, and Leon grabbed a bottle of water out of his hands.

“Shut up,” he said with a firm nod and opened the water bottle, somewhat satisfied with the fact that his hands didn’t shake badly enough to spill any water. “Seriously, Gregorio... Shut up! You are sorry, you will get the moon off the sky to make up for this, you’ll be willing to give me both of your kidneys – I get it...” He drank some water. “I get it,” he said again a minute later. “So just shut up...!”

Stratos blinked at that several times, but obliged and walked towards the bed with another bottle of water and a thin soaked towel in his hands. He sat down on the bed and started slowly and carefully running the wet towel over Gemini’s face, cleaning off the blood.

Leon silently watched both of them, and he wasn’t sure what it was exactly that he felt right then. Well, there was pure, unleaded hatred for that nutcase – Knox – who was the root of this problem, but there was also something else... Regret...? Wondering ‘What if...’? The same old helpless jealousy...? He had no idea.

“We’ve known each other ever since we were nine,” he thought, drinking his water and watching Stratos without saying anything or moving much. “We haven’t been apart for longer than two months in all that time combined... We’ve been through a hell of a lot of shit... We’ve had more sex than one could even imagine in those six goddamn months... I’ve let him do things to me that I’ve never let anyone else even mention...! Shit, there was one time he said that he thought he loved me! We’ve been together for twenty one years straight... And yet...” He drank more water. “And yet, he didn’t even think twice before almost blasting me into oblivion... He didn’t even give me a chance to say anything, to explain... Hell, he didn’t even ask! He simply assumed and he didn’t give a flying shit about anything else... If not for Gemini...” He didn’t even bother thinking that he used the actual name instead of his usual ‘goddamn kelari.’ “...he would have either put me into an early grave or sent me into a goddamn mental institution for the rest of my life... He didn’t even hesitate...!”

He silently drank his water without taking his eyes off Stratos. Then he looked at Gemini.

“Wonder what I would do if I were in his place?” he thought suddenly, and the thought made him blink and lower his water bottle. “I mean, what would I do if there was a perfect opportunity to exact flawless revenge on some asshole who was about to fuck my brain out of my skull a while ago, and who was hell-bent on hurting and humiliating me as much as his imagination would allow while he was at it...? An asshole who would demonstrate exactly just how much he despised me every time he laid his eyes on me...? Yeah, granted, the said asshole did save my life, but still... If the opportunity would arise for me to get rid of him with no guilt or shame whatsoever, what would I do? Would I say ‘Stop, he helped...!’ or would I just shut up and let him get killed in one of the worst ways possible...?”

His inner self remained silent, not giving him any answer, and he sighed and drank more water.

“You are not going back to the hall today, I take it,” he said calmly a minute later, and Stratos shook his head. “Figured,” Leon nodded and tried peeling himself off the wall again. This time, it finally worked.

He was about to say his usual, ‘Call me if you need me,’ but suddenly, Stratos turned his head and looked at him. Leon expected him to start saying ‘I am sorry’ again, and blinked several times when Stratos quietly asked:

“Who?” instead.

Leon looked at him with dark hesitation.

“Who?” Stratos asked again when he received no answer.

Leon sighed and drank more water.

“Stratos,” he said a minute later. “I don’t think knowing the name right now would be the greatest idea for you...”

“Who?” There we go again, Leon thought with irritation. He didn’t seem to hear anything Leon said if it wasn’t the desired name.

“Fine,” he said shortly without looking away from the unblinking blue eyes. “However, if you take off right now and go murder that person, you will end up in prison...”

Stratos looked like he was about to say ‘Who?’ again, but Leon raised his voice, not letting him do that.

“And if you are in prison, it would mean that he...” He looked at silent Gemini. “...would be left completely and utterly alone! Is that what you want?”

These words he did hear, Leon thought when the blue eyes finally blinked and a frozen expression softened somewhat. Stratos let out a sigh and closed his eyes for a few seconds.

“Who?” he asked when he opened them, and Leon stared at him with an ‘Are you kidding me?’ look on his face. Stratos sighed again. “I am not going to take off and murder someone,” he said slowly. “I promise... But I have to know the name... I need to know! Leon, please... Who?”

Leon gritted his teeth. “Why hasn’t Knox set himself on fire in a drunken stupor?” he thought. “Why didn’t that fat guy finish the job of actually killing this damn kelari back at that whore house...?” It seemed that calling him Gemini was only a temporary phase. “And better yet, why didn’t Loreya die when she was an infant? That would definitely fix all of this!” He took a deep breath and finished his water, emptying the bottle.

“Robert Knox,” he said shortly and threw the empty bottle into the trashcan by the opposite wall, not really caring whether he would miss or not. He did, and the empty bottle bounced off the floor with a dry popping sound, rolling towards the bed.

He looked at Stratos when there was nothing but stunned silence. Then he frowned at his expression.

“Stratos...” he started saying, and the musician slowly stood up, his eyes even darker than they already were. “Stratos...” he said again, a bit louder now, and was about to say something else when Gemini let out a quick, sharp inhale and grabbed Stratos’ hand in a trembling, desperate grasp.

Stratos blinked and looked at him.

“I am not leaving,” he said quietly and curled his fingers over the ones that were clutching onto his hand. “I am going to the kitchen... I will never leave you again,” he said, and Leon felt like throwing something at his head.

Gemini blinked and his fingers hesitantly relaxed, letting go of Stratos’ hand. Stratos wouldn’t let go of him completely; he brought his hand up and lightly kissed his fingertips. Then he finally let go.

“I am not leaving,” he said again before walking out of the room.

Leon turned around, about to start following him, and stopped when there was a quick, whispering:

“Thank you...” behind his back.

He turned his head and looked into the dark golden eyes for a few seconds without smiling or saying anything. Then he turned away again and left the room, heading towards the kitchen where Stratos was getting something from the fridge, it sounded like.

He was right, he realized when he got there – Stratos was getting little bottles of liquor out of the mini-bar that was built into the fridge. He got three or four of them and closed the fridge after throwing a quick glance at Leon, who leaned against the wall again.

Leon watched him pour dark liquor into a short glass for a few seconds, and then he sighed and straightened up.

“Call me if you need me,” he said dully, and Stratos looked at him.

“Leon...” he said quietly and put the empty little bottles away. “Leon, I...”

“You would really do it, wouldn’t you?” Leon interrupted him suddenly, and Stratos blinked. “You would really do it... Without listening or asking... You would just do it as if we haven’t spent twenty one goddamn years together... You would do it, just like that, wouldn’t you?”

They were both silent for several minutes, and finally, Stratos pressed his hands into the countertop.

“Yes,” he said quietly without looking away. “Right then, I would... Right then, I would do anything... I would, because right then, I had nothing left in me that was actually me... What would I do after...?” he shrugged. “I don’t know. Would I be able to live with myself? I don’t know. But right then, I would do it...”

Leon looked at him without saying anything for a few silent seconds. Then he hemmed and shoved one of his hands into his pocket.

“Call me if you need me,” he said and turned away, heading towards the front door.

“Leon...”

“I know,” he said without looking back.

With that, he left the room and closed the door behind him. He headed towards the stairs, experiencing a very strong desire to get filthy drunk, and do it soon. “Would you do it?” someone asked him in his head, and he frowned. “If you walked in, saw Stratos half-dead and beaten into pulp and the only other person in the room would be your ex-lover/best friend who openly hated him, so it would be obvious to you that he was the one who did it? If you had his ability, would you do it right then?”

He walked all the way down the stairs and headed towards the front desk.

“Give me the address of the nearest shooting range,” he said darkly, discarding an idea of drowning himself in alcohol tonight.

“One minute,” the clerk nodded and typed something in the computer.

He handed Leon the address a minute later, and Leon nodded and went outside. Right before he pushed open the front door of the hotel, he stopped and very softly said:

“I would...”

After that, he left the hotel without saying or thinking anything else. A few steps later, he stopped and reached his hand behind his back after feeling something dully poking his lower back. He pulled out the knife that he had completely forgotten about and stared at it for several seconds without blinking. Finally, he hemmed, and then his mouth twitched in a bitter smirk – even if he hadn’t forgotten about it, he’d never use it, he knew that. He swung his arm and threw the knife into the nearest tall garbage bin sitting next to the corner of the wall. The knife fish-dove into the large container, disappearing in the trash, and Leon walked away for real.