#Chapter2
His ex hadn't minded when he had slipped into Headspace, or even when he called him Daddy. Kyle just hadn't known how to cope with it. He would always treated him the same as he would have if he wasn't feeling Little. He tried, and Lucien appreciated that either way, but having somebody who understood, somebody who would play with him, as Ronan would on the occasions he had slipped around him, that seemed almost too good to be true.
/"I've known Angel for a long time, Luci./" Ronan gave a slow smile, followed by a half-hearted shrug. /"I know that he can be hard to read and understand at first but he's a good guy. He wouldn't have led you on by saying that he would call you if he wasn't going to. He wouldn't have bought you the teddy if he didn't like you. He's too straight up to do that. Besides, I talked to him last night after your date. Didn't sound like he didn't like you to me./"
Lucien gasped. /"You spoke to him? Why didn't you start with that? What did he say? Did— did he think I was weird?/"
He had a bad habit of getting flustered and perhaps even a somewhat stuttery, especially if he was nervous. That had happened over dinner last night. He had been so anxious that when the waiter had come to take their order, he had crumbled and had barely been able to get his words out. Angel had taken control of the situation, completing the order for him. Besides checking that Lucien was okay with what he had ordered, he hadn't flagged it as an issue.
Which made it hard to know if it had annoyed him or not because like Ronan had said, Angel was very hard to read. His face, though very handsome, dark and sinister in the kind of way that trouble-kissed sinners were, remained a void mask. No emotion had broken through. No smiles. No frowning. There wasn't so much as crease to his brow or a narrowing of his eyes. In a way, Lucien had found that trait scarier than he had the size of the man.
/"He said you were funny and cute. I mean, the bastard didn't thank me for making you two agree to it, but I'm perfectly sure that was what he meant./" Then, smiling sweetly, Ronan said, /"He doesn't do second dates if he isn't certain that he likes somebody. He's a picky, finicky, pain-in-the-ass, but he knows what he likes and what he doesn't. So if he said he would call you, he will. Just bear in mind that he owns a nightclub so he's probably used to staying up all night and sleeping during the day. Just give him a bit of time, babes./"
Was he really so desperate that those few short words were enough to breathe hope into him once more?
He must have been because he couldn't help but nod. /"Okay. I— I hope he does call. He did mention that he had a club. I just didn't think of that./"
Ronan nodded. /"Exactly. So expect a call. Besides, even if he doesn't, or it doesn't work out, he has an identical twin brother. I'll just set you up with him, instead./"
Despite himself, Lucien found himself laughing. He hadn't been friends with Ro all that long, perhaps eight months, or just a touch longer, but the other man had become such a huge part of his life. He'd become a stable and comforting fixture in it. It often felt as though they had known each other for years.
/"So tell me about the tiger. He's a little cutie pie, isn't he? Have you named him yet?/"
Smirking, Lucien gave the smallest of nods. He had a strange tradition when it came to naming his stuffed animals and it drove Ronan nuts. /"His name is Rabbit./"
And right on cue, a groan sounded. /"Why, Luce?/" Ronan laughed, throwing his head back in mock despair. /"Why must you do this to me?/"
He named all of his stuffed animals by the name of a different animal. His beanie lizard was called Chicken. His monkey stuffie was called Penguin. He had an elephant called Octopus.
Ronan said that it messed with his head and made him feel like he was tripping. Lucien found it uniquely adorable and planned on doing it until he ran out of animal names.
/"Sorry./" Lucien giggled, but then he grew serious. /"Thanks for being nice and coming to check on me, Ro-Ro. I think I was more upset than I realised./"
/"Of course. I figured that when you wouldn't answer my calls./" Ronan turned his head to the window with a frown. It was a little after two in the afternoon and the sun, which carried with it a narcissistic amount of heat, blinded the world beyond the pane. The grass on most of the lawns had been dead for weeks due to the heat. Lucien had tried watering his but it wasn't as effective as those that had a sprinkler system. /"But seriously Luci, you know I love you too much to have set you up with an asshole. So smile because a smile a day keeps the tickle monster away./"
So what choice had he but to smile?
/"So,/" Lucien said, his mood already having shifted. Ronan was magic like that. He always knew how to make him feel okay. /"We've talked about me. What's up with you? You look really tired, Ro./"
Which again, was most unlike him. When there were dark rings under his eyes, if they even had the chance to exist to begin with because Ronan was a real princess about his beauty sleep, there was no way he would have left the house without hiding them beneath a ton of glamour.
Yet. here he sat, looking . . . well, exhausted.
/"Great sex does that to a guy,/" Ronan said with a wink. /"You should try it./" Then he paused. Shrugged, following it with a heavy sigh. /"I haven't been sleeping that well recently, but late last night, my friend Sly called me. He needed advice. I wanted to go over and cuddle him until he was all better but I know I need to let him figure things out for himself. It's harder than I thought. I couldn't get back to sleep after he called./"
If Lucien were the jealous type, he would have been envious of Sylvester Morgan. He had never met him personally, but Ronan talked about him all the time. Up until recently, Sly had lived almost a hundred miles away, back in the small town that Ronan had used to live before he had moved. After getting Sly some kind of job, or something like that, he was now living just outside of the city. Ronan had been ecstatic about it.
Frowning, Lucien urged him to talk about it. He could tell that Ronan really needed to let it out, as he was terrible at keeping things bottled up, and they spent the next half an hour talking in riddles because he had to find a way to tell Lucien what was happening with Sly without actually telling him as he had been sworn to silence.
Not a lot of it made sense, but it seemed to have been a weight off of Ronan's shoulders because by the time he finally left, he seemed happier.
So was Lucien-- not long after his friend's departure, Angel's number lit up the screen of his phone.