Chapter 25 - X

Anton sat in silence, staring up at the ceiling in resignation. The tiredness evident on his face.

"What?" Xander asked confused.

"Your dad is definitely going to have my head." Anton said in a grave tone. He didn't know what business Xander's family was into but from what he's seen so far, he wasn't sure he wanted to know, but even he could tell it wasn't a very good thing.

"What does that have to do with anything I just said? I just told you I like you. That's the point."

"Your dad definitely wouldn't want us together for many reasons." Anton deadpanned.

"My dad's opinion aside, do you have feelings for me?" Xander asked, with a raised brow.

"Whether I do or not, none of that matters now that your father has found out you like me." Anton warned.

"Ignore what he'll do. Think about it seriously and answer me honestly. Do you like me or not?" Xander asked, almost on the verge of frustration.

Anton kept quiet for a while, before finally answering.

"I like you."

"Like, romantically, or ..."

"Yes, romantically, Xander."

Xander smiled, a very bright and genuine smile.

"Good. Cause I like you. A lot."

"It's good to hear my feelings are not one-sided, but I'm serious, your dad is probably going to have my head now he knows." Anton reminded Xander.

Xander chuckled at his panic. "Relax. I made sure he would be fine with it. I made it obvious to him where I stand and he's ok with it."

"So... He's doesn't mind it?" Anton asked curiously.

"Not exactly, but he wants to meet you sometime." Xander informed him.

"You should have mentioned that earlier so I can plan how to go about it." Anton said.

"Yeah, well, you're not leaving your bed till the day after tomorrow, unless it's because you need to take a bath or use the restroom." Xander informed him.

"You're being serious..." Anton pointed out.

"Of course I'm being serious. You could have died and all of you are downplaying the situation or making it seem like I'm overreacting." Xander scolded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel that way. You must have been so worried." Anton reached out his hand towards Xander's hair and ran his hand through it, petting and smoothing it back.

Xander's body which was tensed both from the topic and the sudden action of Anton running his hands through his hair, finally relaxed and he leaned into Anton's touch with resignation.

Anton stopped and moved in a few inches on the bed, then patted the bed beside him. Xander sat on it and Anton pulled him down, hugging Xander's head to his chest and leaving Xander's arms lying on either side of his waist while one of his own hands rubbed back and forth on Xander's back and the other ran through Xander's hair.

Xander wrapped his arms around Anton's waist, then inhaled deeply. Anton rested his head on Xander's head and Xander kissed right above Anton's heart.

Anton stopped in his tracks looking at Xander in shock at his bold actions. Seeing Anton didn't react, Xander decided to continue. He kissed from right above Anton's heart, up his chest, his neck, along his jaw and then came to a stop right in front of Anton's lips.

He looked Anton straight in the eyes, as though asking for permission. When Anton didn't make a move to stop him, he kissed him. Anton sat there in shock for a good 10 seconds before closing his eyes and relaxing into the kiss.

Anton trailed a hand into Xander's hair and the other around his back, while Xander trailed his hands up and down Anton's waist, in a sensous manner.

"Do you... know what you're doing?" Anton asked against his lips when they broke away for air.

"Of course, I do." Xander replied instantly, kissing Anton's neck after.

"And are you sure you really want to be in a relationship with me?"

"What of you? You don't mind anything that'll come with being in a relationship with me?"

"I don't at all. I'm more worried about one, how you'll feel about being in a relationship with a guy. Two, someone like me, who tends to get on your nerves." Anton explained.

"I'm fine with it. Honestly. I don't mind it."

"Tsk, such a sweet talker now." Anton said.

"My dad isn't my real dad." Xander said randomly.

"What?" Anton asked.

"I was sent to the family by my real dad at age 8."

"Sent? What for?"

"More like sold really. Dad's family is one of the largest intelligence gathering families in the world and my real father works as a bounty hunter or what you'd call an assassin in simple terms. He gets paid to kill."

Anton didn't say anything. Only listening.

"After my birth mother died which was approximately a year after I was born, my dad decided to train me to follow in his footsteps. My mother was an assassin too, or so I heard from him and apparently she died due to her being weak from complications during my birth. He wanted to follow his path to repay the life I took.

I never complained because I felt I owed it to him for taking his wife, his partner away. When I was sent to the family, I was sent as an assassin. To do all the dirty work behind the scenes. No one would suspect me, because I'm a child, was what my father said. Sebastian however, took me in as his son, even though I spent years suspicious of him. He only treated me well, took care of my, educated me and put me in the path to take after him when he retires.

Remembering all this makes me a tad guilty, but he always knew I never wanted to walk this path. I always wanted to know what was normal, and so he tried to be that type of normal dad for me, whatever it took. I'm glad I was sent to meet him. My birth father could never." Xander told him. "Alright that the end of my story. You can pretend you didn't hear anything now."

Anton smiled briefly then he opened his mouth to speak.

"My family was relatively normally on surface level. We did basically everything normal families did. One thing I suspect normal families didn't do though, was experimenting on their children.

"Testing how much pain a baby could suffer before they cried out and timing how long they'd cry before they stopped crying again."

"Whenever I showed in interest in something they'd try it out on me, then fix me right up, so I could recover and they continue to experiment. I liked knife throwing and archery, so they decided to practice with me as the target. Thankfully mum was bad at both, dad however was manageable, so he tended to aim for my body below the neck so people would really see the scars till they'd healed up. And they made sure it healed so well that no one would know I'd ever been injured. Everything was within their calculations."

"Your family sounds more f*cked up than mine." Xander admitted.

"It's not as bad as training to be an assassin since age 1. It's fine though. We're in the now, not then." Anton told him.

"What happened to your parents? Did you kill them?" Xander asked curiously.

"No. They mysteriously died. They were scientists. I suspect they died from one of the drugs they were making. I wouldn't know cause I wasn't living with them anymore as of then. I left home the moment I finished my studies and went to get a job."

Xander was silent for a while, before he spoke.

"I see. Well, that's enough."

"Of?" Anton asked.

"Talking. You should rest. You need to recover quickly." Xander reminded him.

"I'm fine now. You know that right? Nothing would suddenly happen to me." Anton told him.

Xander said nothing pushing him back till he was lying down and leaning over him. He kissed him once more, then have him a peck on the forehead.

"Go to sleep, now." He said, covering Anton with the blanket and lying down beside him, so they hugged each other to sleep.