*
It was already evening, an hour or so till it would fall dark. Even though Xander was planning on moving into Anton's house, he hadn't told him when exactly he would officially move in, even though he had made his decision to stay at Anton's house. Xander was nowhere to be found. Anton was home alone. Not alone per se, as he was actually attending to a client in the guest room again, and Sarah was somewhere else in the house.
"So, these designs?" Anton asked the petite brunette in the sofa beside his armchair. He seemed to have learned from the last time someone sat in Xander's seat and always made sure to keep clients out of that seat.
The woman shyly nodded with a bashful smile. "Yes and a bit of these too." She told Anton pointing out some things in the catalogue.
"Alright, ma'am. I'll forward the designs and matchups to you on our platform. It was nice having you." He told her with a business like smile.
He stood up, waited for her to stand and then escorted her out of the lounge and out the front door.
After he watched her enter her car, he spoke again with that same business smile, "Thank you for patronising us."
"It's a pleasure..." The woman replied still looking rather shy. Anton took a step back, and watched her car drive away before turning and heading back into the house.
Anton was dressed formally again. He was wearing a light grey button down and black slacks. His shoes were black and shiny as usual. On his left hand sat a silver watch and his hair was tied in a ponytail and folded in two, then secured in a rubber with some strands framing his face.
He took a look at his watch, then sighed, before stepping into the house again.
"Anton Sir," Anton was met with Sarah just as he entered and closed the front door. "I'm done with my work, so I'll be going now."
"Of course." Anton smiled genuinely. "See you on Monday."
"Thank you, Sir." She replied bashfully then turned around and left. Anton locked the door behind her, then went back to his lounge, picking up where he left off writing.
*
It was dark now and Anton had long stood up to turn on the light of the lounge due to how dark the room had gotten. He had just been writing for almost an hour when he heard the sound of the front door opening and shutting.
'That can't be right. If it was Sara who had forgotten something, she would just inform me she'd take it when she came back or she would inform me so I could open the door for her. And it can't be Xander either. He doesn't have the keys yet.'
He heard someone trodding lightly as they could, down the corridors. Anton shook his head, closed his book, placing his pen on top of it and left the room quietly.
*
A burglar dressed in black, ski mask, included, tiptoed around the house in case there was someone at home. His clothes were tightfitting, so it showed he was a male.
The burglar entered the kitchen but he hadn't noticed anyone walk up behind him and stand a few metres away. All of a sudden the burglar heard a voice from behind "What? Are you looking for me?"
The burglar nearly jumped a mile in the air before regaining his composure. He turned around with a knife he had considerately placed on his belt to settle cases like these. The moonlight streaming into the room through an open window illuminated a beautiful looking man with extremely pale skin that seemed white under the moonlight. The man seemed extremely relaxed for someone who just had his house broken into. He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and a raised brow, watching the burglar in curiousity as though wanting to know what he planned to do next.
Anton only looked at the tip of the knife then back at the burglar. He tilted his head like a big cat analysing its prey, but did nothing.
"Is there a reason you came here? What are you looking for?" Anton asked curiously.
The burglar felt the situation seemed somewhat reversed, but wondered why he would think so when he himself had a knife. Replacing his hesitance with confidence in his capabilities, he rushed at Anton knife in hand. Anton frowned a bit thinking, 'How impulsive!' as he dodged to the side.
The burglar, annoyed at having his attack being evaded, turned right around and attacked again. Anton tutted in his mind, frowning, 'Truly impulsive.'
They fought for a while, mostly Anton dodging attacks before he got bored and knocked out the burglar. He had gotten a few little cuts here and there but he didn't notice because adrenaline was still rushing through his blood at high speed. He dragged the unconscious man to his lounge, dropping him beside his chair, and tied him up with some rope he had kept in the storeroom once after his car had broken down and had to be towed by rope.
He went back to his seat and continued his writing as though nothing had happened.
*
The next person came looking for the first burglar and they were dressed similarly, they even had a knife too. From their height and build, you could tell it was another man.
He saw the light of the lounge open and proceeded to enter only to see the person they came for lying unconsciously on the floor beside a man who was casually flipping through a black book.
Out of anger at the scene, he growled out, "How dare you?!" Rushing right at Anton.
'Even more impulsive.' Anton thought shaking his head and dogded quickly, standing up from the seat, leaving the burglar to stab into the seat. Anton sighed in dismay
"That was my favorite seat. Couldn't you have stabbed somewhere else?" Anton explained as though he was asking if he couldn't have chosen coffee over ginger tea.
The burglar charged again. "You bastard!"
"Am I?" Anton asked with a raised brow.
*
Another tied up unconscious man beside Anton's chair and Anton was just about to sit in Xander's chair, while inspecting the damage in his chair when another man masked and wearing all black, looking like the previous burglars came in.
"Please tell me you're the last?" Anton asked sitting down.
The man said nothing. Only looked at the rest and remained quiet.
"Ah... I think I get it now... You were probably all here for Xander. Maybe if he was home and I wasn't, you really would have stabbed him to death or maybe trashed the house..." Anton laughed.
"People still do that? It's been long since I heard of such happening..." Anton said. "Anyways, please forgive me, but I can't let you do what you want to do." He was referring to the text the last burglar was trying to send inconspicuously.
Anton who the burglar hadn't noticed sneak out the field of his vision, was now right behind him. He knocked him out, tied all three men together and sat in his chair, satisfied that his job went well.
*
Later that night, Xander stood at the entrance of the door wondering why it was opened. His mind was in disarray, and a stabbing pain in his chest made him hesitant to open the door.
He ignored the feeling and walked in quickly closing the door behind him. And searched everywhere for Anton.
"Anton! Anton! Anton!" Xander panicked calling out Anton's name when he didn't see him.
"Yes, Xander?" Anton walked out of the lounge watching wondering why Xander was calling him so frantically.
Anton's clothes bloodied and in disarray caught Xander's attention and his heart dropped to his stomach.
He moved forward on his own, trying to take grab Anton's forearms and inspect him every which way to ensure it wasn't his blood on his body, but before he could start, Anton stopped him.
"It's obviously not mine." He told Xander with a raised brow, abd nodded towards a direction where all the three burglars lay tied together with a rope.
A rare expression of anger clouded Xander's face and he burst as though he was a volcano.
"Are you crazy? You should have called the police. Even if you didn't call the police, you should have called me. What if something happened to you?!"
Anton watched Xander's expression for a while, watching his heavy panting from shouting so loud it could wake the dead. He watched the veins on Xander's head and forearms pop before he smiled softly.
"I can take care of myself, Xander. I only left them tied up there because I felt you would want to deal with them yourself. My guess was that they came for you." Anton spoke in a soft voice, still smiling slightly.
"I don't fucking care whether you could take care of it yourself or not, you should have called me. What if you weren't so lucky?"
Anton laughed. "I could handle it myself, besides I planned to detain them here till the next time you came. I just realized this evening that I didn't have your number."
The fire in Xander's eyes didn't reduce a bit, in fact they blazed hotter. "That's why you did this? What if something came up and I didn't come when I did and something had really happened to you?"
Anton's smile didn't reduce a bit even though he felt the intense anger in Xander's eyes on him.
"Alright. I'm sorry. I won't do it again. But I really don't get why you're so worked up about it. I'm used to dealing with things on my own."
"I'm going to be living with you from now on, dammit. Didn't you think for once that I'd be worried?!" Xander shouted and as he shouted, Anton swayed. Not at the words Xander said or the hurt expression on Xander's face.
He didn't really feel good. He swayed again, clutching his head at the headache that was coming on. His vision was starting to get dark.
He swayed, his vision went sideways, and a pair of strong arms caught him, but he didn't even have the energy to check who, the face above his that was yelling, "F*ck! he's burning up. Get over here right now!", "Get someone to clean up this mess." and "Get the car ready." into his phone was more than enough comfort he was safe. Although the noise made his head hurt more, he didn't mind listening to Xander's voice assuring he was there with him.
"Anton!" Was the last thing he heard in that deep but panic filled voice, before his vision went completely dark.