Free Web NovelChapter 498: Out of Character
Lane’s wish wouldn’t be fulfilled. After leaving the hospital, Damien barely escorted him back home. Even the door didn’t close behind them before he announced that he had to go back to work.
"They need me to watch over the protest," he briefly explained.
"Oh."
Lane was disappointed, but not surprised. With how the Association tended to overwork his boyfriend, it was to be expected that he soon would be summoned again, especially when there were monsters roaming around, and everyone’s eyes were on the Capital. He was also aware that pouting and complaining wouldn’t achieve anything - orders were orders, and Damien always put them above his own wishes and feelings - so he simply asked,
"Are you going to fight?"
"I don’t know. For now, we’re supposed to be on standby and guard the perimeters."
"Hmm..."
It was just as Lane had thought. Or rather, how Blanc had anticipated. The Association was still not making any move. Lane pondered over it for a moment, and just as Damien was about to head out again, he suggested,
"Should I go with you?"
Damien paused with his hand on the door handle. "You’re injured," he pointed out.
"Not that much... Besides, you said we’re not going to fight, right?"
...He shouldn’t have said that. Putting aside the fact that Lane was supposed to pretend that his injuries were more serious than they actually were and that he was partially paralyzed from the S-rank monsters’ poison, there was another reason for Lane not to go. A reason that caused Damien’s brows to furrow, as he cast Lane a long look.
"Yes, we’re probably not going to fight..." he repeated slowly. "Then... Why would you even want to go?"
Lane flinched, realizing his mistake. It was out of character for him to volunteer to take part in a boring task such as this one, when he could laze around at home instead. His eyes darted to the side, and he nervously rubbed his neck, quickly coming up with an excuse.
"Well... I’m just a bit curious and wanted to take a look, that’s all."
"We’re going to be patrolling the area for hours until the situation is resolved. Making sure that the situation is contained and no fight breaks out..."
"Eh, right, you have a point. I didn’t think about that," Lane shrugged his shoulders, letting out a short chuckle. It came out a little bit unnatural, as his throat felt tight, but he carried out his act in hopes that Damien wouldn’t notice anything. "In that case, I guess I’ll pass. I’m kind of sleepy anyway." He faked a yawn and turned around, heading into the apartment. "Good luck at work, come home soon." freewebnøvel.coɱ
He could still feel tingling in his nape, as Damien’s eyes didn’t leave him, carefully observing him until he disappeared into another room. Whether he was suspicious, or simply worried about Lane, Lane wasn’t sure... The latter seemed more likely, but Lane took a mental note to be more careful in the future.
It was still too early for Damien to discover the truth.
Thankfully, Damien didn’t question Lane any further. "Rest well, I’m going now," he just said, before heading out. Only after the door closed behind him, did Lane exhale with relief, throwing himself onto the couch. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
This was all way too exhausting... Playing on several fronts, having multiple secrets, and no one (except for Ava) that he could be fully honest in front of... He thought that he was used to living a double life after all those years, but having a boyfriend when his secret organization was increasing its activities and the situation was escalating truly made things incomparably more difficult. On top of that, after that night’s incidents, the Allens were bound to at least suspect that he was still hiding his true power...
With things like that, one mistake could be all that it took for his ’peaceful’ life to crumble, and the pressure that came with it was slowly starting to get to him.
’I need to at least get Blanc under control soon...’ he thought as he closed his eyes. He didn’t bother going to bed (Damien wasn’t there anyway, so what was the point), he just pulled a blanket out of his spatial bag and rolled over to the side, falling asleep just as he was, in the living room.
When he woke up a few hours later, it was already morning. Daylight was flooding the room, but the apartment was just as quiet and empty as before.
Damien was still not back.
...Well, it kind of worked in Lane’s favor, as he also had stuff to do. Having rested a bit, he was in a better mood, ready to tackle his ’Boss of the secret organization’s’ responsibilities. He tossed away the blanket, briefly went to his own apartment through the balcony to grab his laptop (he didn’t like keeping it at Damien’s place because of all the secrets it contained. Not that he didn’t trust the man, but... It just didn’t feel right. It was all about keeping his secret identity and his life with Damien separate), before settling by the coffee table in Damien’s living room, with handmade snacks found in Damien’s cupboards right next to him. The stuff he was about to do was top secret, but he still wanted to make sure he was around when Damien finally returned.
Biting into one of the cookies to sweeten up the tedious work, he logged into his secret organization’s account, while turning the TV on in the meantime to check the news. The stations were still going on about the monster protest, but without any new information to report, so after barely sparing it a glance, Lane turned his full attention to his inbox.
...As expected, it was filled with a lot of fresh reports. Including several emails from Blanc, updating Lane on the development and urging him to respond.
It was rather unusual. Although the plan was still ongoing, so it technically made sense for Blanc to want to consult his Boss before proceeding with anything, they had already discussed it beforehand, and Lane had given him the green light to carry on as he saw fit (within the bounds of the plan, of course). Lane was also habitually hard to reach, so it made no sense for Blanc to suddenly expect a response within mere hours...
Unless he had other motives. To stir something, or maybe to check something... It was hard to tell.
Lane let out a sigh, swallowing the cookie and immediately grabbing another one. He needed a lot of sugar to get through all of that...
