Thanks to Stephan, Misha's mood went down the drain at a speed visible to the naked eye. He unconsciously pursed his lips and glared daggers at the man, wondering if throwing him out the window would kill him or not. They were only on the second floor, so he probably would survive the fall. Thus, the question was: how many broken bones would he end up with?
Should Misha test it…?
Sigh. Better not.
Before entering Stephan's office, Misha had been pretty self-satisfied with his prank, but now… Now, he was reminded of something he had been trying to avoid thinking about: he still had two more years to go before turning eighteen. Two more frigging years! The wait was killing him, if not driving him crazy. How great would it be to open his eyes one morning and be all grown-up? He'd started to dream about it lately–a dream almost always followed by R18+ scenes.
These wishful thoughts weren't anything new, though. Since the first day he had transmigrated into his ten-year-old self, he'd whined about missing his adult form and whatnot.
He hated how frail he was as a child and how he couldn't do anything. It'd been frustrating as hell.
But that was it. If Misha was honest, he wasn't that much in a hurry to grow up back then; he was just annoyed. However, it was different now. He couldn't help but think of the things he would finally be able to do with Gabriel once he reached adulthood. Call him foolish or immature, but what could he do about it? He had never fallen in love before, or more accurately, he had never realized he was in love with a certain someone before his other self pointed it out.
But now that he knew, he'd become all too aware of his feelings, as well as Gabriel's attractive body. Just like Stephan, he had his own personal hell to live through every night he shared a bed with Gabriel.
Just thinking about the man's warm back pressed against his chest was enough to throw a certain part of his body in disarray, thanks to his hormonal mess. He often complained about how his classmates were no better than horny dogs in heat, but lately, he felt like he wasn't any better.
Had his teenage years been that rough to go through in the first timeline…?
No, it hadn't been. He'd been too busy trying to survive his father's abuse to even think about his love life and whatnot. His sexual drive was nonexistent at the time.
'Is that why I'm feeling it so much this time? It's compensating for the first timeline, isn't it…?'
As Misha thought about it more and more, pent-up frustration started twisting his belly into knots. He grew more irritated by the second. And just as he was about to vent on his boss by snarling some unsavory comments, the familiar sound of a bell rang in the office.
Whenever a client entered the café, the bell would ring downstairs and upstairs to warn every employee of the new guest's arrival. Hearing the ringing bell, Misha momentarily forgot about his bad mood and peered at the monitor on Stephan's desk, which displayed what was happening in real-time in the café. It had two screens, one focused on the entrance and the other disclosed the full café.
The moment Misha saw who had come, a smile bloomed on his lips, and pink bubbles seemed to float around him.
Before long, he swirled on his heel to run downstairs. Who cared about his boss when Gabriel was in the vicinity? With Jake and Tristan in tow, to boot? Stephan had been thrown at the back of his mind, and the man, not knowing he had just escaped Misha's wrath, was laughing heartily at his speedy reaction. He was like a golden retriever who had finally seen his owner after a whole day left alone at home.
.
.
"Gaby!" Misha called out before crashing into the man's chest. He didn't care about people's stares and openly displayed his affection. "Aren't you early?"
"Well," Gabriel chuckled, a shadow flashing through his eyes as he seemed to think of something unpleasant, "work ended earlier than usual."
"How come?"
"I'll tell you later."
Misha slowly nodded before diverting his attention to Jake and Tristan. As always, the child was glued to his big brother's thigh, hugging it tightly. A bashful smile curled his lips as his eyes met Misha's. Only after getting the teenager's attention did Tristan free his brother's leg to jump on Misha's instead.
"Misha!" The boy pouted before looking pitifully at the teenager from under his long eyelashes. "You haven't come to visit us lately. I missed you!"
To this, Misha froze, his smile growing awkward. He glanced at Gabriel and Jake, who responded by cocking an eyebrow. Misha couldn't help but feel alienated. How could these two be so unbothered?
Since learning that this kid's older self, who had grown into a monster in another timeline, was haunting their timeline, Misha didn't know how to act around the boy. The masked man's face popped into his mind whenever he looked at the child, reminding him of what Jake went through. Of course, Misha knew his Tristan and the other one weren't the same person, but adjusting his mental state around the kid was still difficult. He wasn't like these two cool-headed oddballs who were unaffected by the ups and downs of life! He was a normal human being who experienced discomfort and fear, ok?!
"Are you alright? You look pale."
Tristan's worried voice snapped Misha out of his thoughts. He coughed before ruffling the boy's fluffy, curly hair. 'Come on, Mish', you've got to put your act together,' he thought with self-loathing. If Jake, the victim, could act like nothing had happened, he should be able to do the same. It shouldn't be that hard.
"It's nothing. Just had a rough day today."
An amused chuckle resounded behind him at these words, and Misha glanced over his shoulders to glare at Stephan. Like the teenager, he had left his office and walked downstairs the moment he caught a glimpse of the Laflamme brothers, ditching his work.
"If pranking your customers counts as having a rough day…"
"Well, my paycheck is having a rough day."
"If you're aware, stop trying to poison Isaac's hot chocolate!" Stephan whined before gesturing to Jake, Tristan, and Gabriel to take a seat. "Do you want something? Don't worry, I'll be the one to make your beverages, not this little devil."
"You do know I don't tamper with their orders, just Isaac's and yours, right?"
"And what if you have a change of heart?"
Misha opened his mouth, only to close it right after. He took an instant to ponder and self-reflect before smacking his lips. The teenager couldn't retort anything to that. He was indeed the type to change his mind on a whim, so he nonchalantly shrugged. What could he say? Bad habits were hard to break, and he couldn't change how he was made at his age.
"Mish'!" Vanessa's exasperated voice resounded throughout the shop, "Stop idling and help me! There's a mountain of dishes to wash, and have you brought Isaac's gift card?"
"Yes, yes!"
Though reluctant, Misha turned around to go back to work, but a small hand gripped his shirt, stopping him in his tracks. He lowered his eyes to look at Tristan's hopeful face.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Say, can I help you? I want to work, too!"
Taken aback, Misha blinked several times before muttering, "And why's that? Don't you want to spend time with your brothers instead?"
"I do, but if I help you with your work, you'll finish earlier, and we can all spend time together, right?"
The sparkle in the kid's eyes seemed to twirl and overflow. It made Misha's heart clench, and he couldn't muster the courage to tell the boy that even if he helped, he still had to work until the end of his shift.
"That's a wonderful idea!" Stephan grinned, winking at Misha, whose face had grown distrustful. What was this sneaky boss of his scheming this time? Whenever he grinned at work, it never boded well for Misha.
"There's an apron that should fit you in the locker room. Can you go put it on? We wouldn't want you to splash your clothes with dirty water while cleaning the dishes, hm?"
"Sure! But can I have a headband with cat ears, too?" Tristan clapped his hands with anticipation and joy. "It looks so cute!"
"Yes, yes. Misha knows where they are. He can fetch you one and help you put on the apron."
"So, mind telling us why you have an apron that fits Tristan's size? You do know that hiring kids is against the law, right…?"
As an answer, Stephan nonchalantly shrugged. Misha squinted his eyes but decided not to pursue the matter. Instead, he took Tristan to the locker room.
"Come on, follow me."
Tristan happily nodded and followed behind Misha, just like a little duckling. His brothers watched his antics with faint but kind smiles. The kid was bouncing on his feet, too glad to be of help. The sight made Jake shake his head slightly. This boy was oh-so-different from his past selves. Jake had a hunch it wasn't only because of the love he received this time around but also because he had memories of what he had become and was trying hard not to be like the man haunting his night. The child didn't want the nightmares to become reality.
"So?" Stephan started as he went behind the counter to make their coffees. "What brings the three of you here? Aren't you two supposed to be at work?"
"Forced holidays," Jake grunted. "We're to leave for our family's villa with Angela this evening."
Stephan froze and tilted his head, confused. "Since when has this trash of a human being cared about giving you two vacations? And she's even coming with you? Like, she wants to spend time with you two?"
Gabriel smiled coldly, "It's certainly not out of the goodness of her heart. Jake and I have concluded she wants us out of the house for the next few days. Our father isn't coming with us, so he probably has things to do at home."
"To clarify, they don't want anyone near the house," Jake continued, thanking Stephan as he brought his cup of coffee to his lips. It was delicious, as always. "They couldn't make it any more obvious, as they even asked us to bring you and the Lesskov siblings with us. I say asked, but it'd be more accurate to say we were ordered to drag the three of you with us."
"Oh?" Stephan cocked an eyebrow. "So, what are you gonna do?"
The two brothers glanced at each other, and then the same, exact, devious smile stretched their lips. They were each other's mirror as they chorused, "How can we miss this chance? It was about time something happened."
Stephan chuckled, bringing a hand to his mouth to hide his wicked amusement. The two men had been good, obedient dogs until now, and their parents had lowered their guard enough to bring associates to their home. They probably thought their sons hadn't realized why they were given some time off from work and why Angela was going as far as proposing to bring them to their villa and accompany them. It was obvious she planned to chaperone them.
Of course, the brothers would comply so as not to arouse their parents' suspicions. However, it wasn't because they were absent from home that they couldn't seize the opportunity offered to them on a gold platter. They had a few tricks up their sleeves, after all.
"Oh well, I guess I can close the café for the next few days and give some time off to my employees. I'm curious to see what else that woman is scheming."
Jake scoffed. Who was Stephan trying to fool? He just wanted to spend time with the Laflamme brothers and mess with Angela in passing. If not, enjoy the show that was about to unfold.
And what a shitshow it was going to be.
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Edited by Clozed! ♥
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