Aidan splashed cold water on his face as he tried to regain his composure.  At first he thought the worst thing that Luca could have done was cheat on him or leave him; but all this came out of left field. He knew he had to help and hold Luca at a time like this, but he didn't know how to; when he wanted to hold him and tell him it was all going to be okay, he froze.

He finally took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom, glancing over to see the light indentation in the duvet where Luca was sitting, but now was nowhere in sight. Shit, Aidan said to himself as he bolted out of his room and down the stairs to see no sign of Luca anywhere. He let out a string of profanities as he threw the front door open, momentarily breathing a sigh of relief as he watched Luca walking down towards his car. He bolted straight for him, playfullytackling the smaller boy into the grass and pinning him down.

"MINCHIA! CHE CAZZO STAI FACENDO! SCENDI! NON MI TOCCARE! STRONZO!" (Fuck! What the fuck are you doing?! GET OFF! Don't touch me you piece of shit!) Luca screamed at him angrily, earning him a loving smirk from Aidan. He loved how Luca looked when he was happy and angry, but not so much when he was sad. However Aidan's amusement didn't last long when he suddenly  felt Luca slap him across the face.

"I deserved that" Aidan said with a sigh staring down as he took in Luca's swollen red eyes and tear stained. "Where the fuck were you going, baby?"

"HOME! Where the fuck else would I go! You clearly didn't want me here!"

"Baby, I never said I-"

"You didn't have to!" Luca screamed as the tears continued to stream down his face. "You didn't even want to look at me! You didn't even let me touch you! You think I'm some sort of psycho murderer freak!" Aidan didn't know what to say to him, so he did all he could to show that everything Luca said was wrong. 

"Shh... Look at me..." Aidan cupped Luca's face lovingly, locking eyes with him in hopes he could get through to the distraught dark haired boy. "Look into my eyes... I'm here... I'm right here..."  Aidan gently placed his lips onto Luca's and kissed him softly as Luca kissed him back out of habit though he was still angry with his handsome blond boyfriend.

"Let's go inside and talk." Aidan said with labored breaths as he broke off the kiss; pulling back to see Luca's previously fiery eyes looked to be considerably. Luca nodded grudgingly, it was clear he was still upset with Aidan, but he wasn't going to let this end what they had; Aidan loved Luca with all his heart, and this was far from over so long as he had anything to say about this.

Aidan scooped Luca up bridal style and carried him up the walkway and back into his house; he could hardly look down at Luca, his eyes were practically dripping with anger and a look of deep seated disappointment. And why wouldn't he? When Luca needed him most Aidan froze.                          

Shutting the front door to their house and carrying Luca back up to his bedroom, Aidan collected his thoughts so that he could be strong for Luca; he needed him in this moment. Aidan was traumatized just hearing about it all, he couldn't even imagine how traumatized Luca was. As he carried the dark haired boy back into his bedroom he set him down onto the bed and climbed on top of him, cupping his face as he brushed the hair out of Luca's face.

"I love you, Luca." Aidan said softly, his sapphire blue eyes gazing deeply into Luca's

"No you don't." Luca said darkly as he glared up into Aidan's soft eyes. It almost broke Aidan's heart how in a second Aidan could see the love in Luca's eyes seemed to be gone entirely, leaving nothing but the same empty, dark, broken eyes that he remembered the night he attacked him all those years ago. "When I needed you... When I needed you to kiss me and hold me and tell me it was all going to be okay, you left me alone."

"I needed a second, Luca!" Aidan cried out in disbelief. "In a matter of fifteen minutes you told me that you were molested by an Olympic coach whose face was all over the news for months, and that your family are literally in the mafia, and OH YEAH! That you almost shot a man in the head, but didn't! Oh but your COUSIN did shoot him! I was overwhelmed, I froze! Have you never froze before!? I told you I needed a second! I come out to figure everything out and you're fucking gone!"

"I needed you! I needed you to stay with me and you didn't!" Luca said angrily trying to push Aidan off of him in vain.

"Just calm down, okay." Aidan said as he wrapped his arms around Luca, in attempt to stop the smaller boy's incessant thrashing. "I thought about it, and we need to figure this out."

"Figure WHAT out, what a-" Luca screamed hysterically, cut off as Aidan playfully pecked him on the lips to all him down. He did that a few more times, cutting Luca off by kissing him. The more frustrated he was getting the more amused Aidan seemed to get.

Luca finally gave in as he melted into Aidan's arms, burying his face into his chest and sobbing hysterically into his shirt. Aidan's muscular arms engulfed Luca, allowing himself to mould his body around his little boyfriend's.

"Shh... I'm here now baby... I'm not going anywhere..." Aidan whispered as he consoled the hysterical boy as best as he possibly could. "I'll be right here, if we need to hide the body or get married or something. I'm right here."

"What...?" Luca gently pushed Aidan off of him with a confused expression.

"If we're married I won't have to testify against you if they call us in." Aidan said seriously as Luca turned bright red holding in his laughter with ever ounce of power he had left. He eventually just burst out laughing, doubling over as his boyfriend watched in confusion.

"Aidan... Aidan.. Babe..." Luca started when his laughter started to subside.   "Just.. Wait." Luca fished his phone out of his pocket, and tapped away before he turned the phone back towards Aidan.

"I can't read that it's in French." Aidan said squinting at the phone screen.

"Oh. Shit. Sorry." Luca started as he glanced at the phone screen. "It'll probably be on the American news channels if he's ever identified, but it says 'Officers found badly burnt remains of man inside car that appears to have collided with a tree outside Sherbrooke, Québec and caught fire. Police do not suspect any foul play and have ruled it as an accident. Body has yet to be identified."

"I don't know if I should be uncomfortable by that or relieved." Aidan glanced up at Luca wearily, partially unnerved by how unfazed the dark haired boy seemed by all this.

"My family doesn't mess around." Luca said nonchalantly. "So don't hurt me, or else." Luca chuckled awkwardly before his face returned to a neutral serious expression. "I might seem unfazed, but I'm not. He hurt me, and others like me. But I didn't believe he deserved to die. Suffer, maybe? Burn in the fires of Hell? Definitely. But not die. Yet here we are. This is my family. This is who we are. We're not usually violent, we usually just pull strings and deliver favors. But they watched me cry myself to sleep for months, they watched me have panic attacks whenever any man would even come near me. T-they watched me in hospital, fighting for my life after I tried to take my own life. I won't say they did the right thing, but they got the revenge they saw fit, when the justice system couldn't get it for me or the others whom he hurt. So what do you say, Aid? Can you look past all this and still love me?"

Aidan didn't have to say anything, what he did next was enough to show Luca he was in it for the long haul. He grabbed Luca by the waist and pulled him into a deep and loving kiss. He wasn't going to let anything stand in the way of his love, not even something as big as this...

The next school day was a drag for Luca, then again, when wasn't it a drag to go back to school after a long weekend? He had cheerleading practice after school which was even more of a drag, but giving he'd been loading up on his Yiayia's homemade Greek food, he definitely needed the workout.

Practice was relatively uneventful, the freshmen were being chatty, the sophomores irrelevant, and the juniors bitchy; so he and his other co-captains Claire and Hannah had to scream at them while their fellow seniors rolled their eyes and patiently waited for the next seven months till graduation to pass by.

After practice was over he grabbed his cheerleading bag and walked towards his car. He was one of the last to leave, since he and Hannah had to clear things up and work on some changes to the roster for the next game, against Hilldale. When he walked back to his car, he noticed a familiar dark haired boy sitting on his trunk, only the subtle glow from his phone screen barely illuminating his face

"Hey..." Gio said sheepishly as Luca approached him with a tight lipped smile. "I... brought you this." He said as he handed a Starbucks cup to Luca with a weary smile. Luca smirked to himself as he took the cup out of his hand, noting the irony and deja vu of the whole situation. "French vanilla, your favorite."

"You remembered." Luca said with an awkward smile as a painful silence ensued between the two cousins, only the sound of ice swirling around their plastic cups breaking the deafening silence.

"Luca... I... I'm sorry about blowing up on you last week." Gio said with a defeated sigh as Luca stared at him. "I... I just miss you. We were always so close, and these past two months I... I feel you getting more and more distant and I guess I got upset."

"I'm sorry too, Gio... Things have just been rough. And I'm trying to figure things out." Luca awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "It's nothing personal..."

"I hope you know you can tell me anything." Gio said glancing up at Luca with a blank, unreadable expression. Gio was one of those people who were unreadable, and even though he had known him all his life, Luca still couldn't read Gio with one hundred percent confidence. He couldn't tell if he knew about Aidan or not, and if he did, why didn't he say something.

"I know, Gio... I know..." Luca said as he bridge the gap between them and gave him a tight brotherly hug. "I love you."

"Love you too, fratellino." Gio said as he reciprocated the hug, cherishing the moment that they shared. He knew better than to believe Luca, his cousin was hiding something and what hurt most was that he felt like he couldn't tell him. He might now know what it is now, but he sure as hell would find out...