Stockholm Syndrome (MewGulf AU)

Chapter 13

Gulf came home, his body still shaking from the tragic event, and went straight to his bedroom only to be greeted by a furious Mew. He was standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, brows furrowed, his crescent eyes filled with anger. 

"Mew," Gulf retorted. He could definitely feel Mew's rage but this time he wasn't shaken by it. He was already too traumatized to feel anything else. 

"Where have you been?" Mew questioned, his voice deep. He then threw the phone, Gulf's phone, that he was holding on the bed and pointed at it. "Did you purposely left it or are you just trying to..." Mew was being cut off when Gulf just approached him and wrapping his arm around, hugging Mew tightly. Mew frowned, confused at Gulf's gesture.

"Gulf?" Mew spoke but got no answer in return. Gulf just stayed there, hugging him and nuzzling his face in the crook of Mew's neck. When Mew returned the gesture, wrapping him arms around Gulf's slim figure, he realized that Gulf was shaking and his rage turned to worry. "Gulf, why are you shaking like this? What happen?" The moment Mew asked that question, Gulf immediately broke into tears.  

"Hey, hey, shh shh," Mew comforted him, rubbing circles around Gulf's back as Gulf sobbed vigorously. "It's okay, it's okay." 

Mew then picked Gulf up and went to sit on the edge of the bed. Gulf clung himself to Mew, wrapping his arms and legs to him as if his life depends on it. Gulf didn't know he was holding back his tears until he felt himself being safe under Mew's embrace again that he started balling his eyes out. He let his fear flew out through his tears, wetting Mew's shirt. The last time he felt this way was when he came back from school to find his parents on the floor in a pool of blood, lifeless. He had been getting nightmares of it every night for almost a month. In fact he was having a terrible flashbacks of it on his way back home just now.

"Can you hold me?" Gulf asked, his voice breaking from the tears.

"I'm holding you right now," Mew replied, his tone getting softer now that he saw how terrified Gulf was although he still didn't know the reason behind it. He kept rubbing circles around Gulf's back, soothing and giving him comfort.

"I want you to hold me tight."

As if on cue, Mew's embraced tightens a little and he could feel Gulf's muscles relaxed and he's getting less tense.

"Then, I'll keep holding you like this, all night long," Mew said, caressing Gulf's hair. Gulf nodded and nuzzled his face back into Mew's neck, making himself comfortable and taking in the warmth. It didn't take long for Gulf to fall asleep and Mew was careful to maneuver them both onto the bed as to not wake him up. Mew did kept his promise and held Gulf close to him all night long as he too drifted to sleep with a curious mind on why was Gulf suddenly feeling all terrified. But he decided to just keep the interrogation for later and only focused on calming his little Gulf that night.

...........

After the incident, Gulf had been having a bad fever for a few days. Although he was still able to walk, Mew insisted to carry him around wherever he wanted to go and yet Gulf never complained. He really just loved to be carried around like that.

"You know, you don't have to carry me around I'm not cripled yet," Gulf said, and Mew chuckled at his words as he carried Gulf in his arms bridal-style from their bedroom towards the dining room.

"But you love it."

"No, I don't," Gulf defended himself but his face was showing a different story by going red.

"You're bad at lying, Kana," Mew said only to receive a light punch on his chest. He then sitted Gulf on one of the chair ever so gently as if he was going to break to pieces if mishandled. The table was already set with his breakfast that looked like a feast enough for 10 people. Mew took a seat next to him and instead of eating he just stared at Gulf.

Gulf was cutting through his pancakes when he noticed Mew wasn't eating and was just looking at him.

"You're not hungry?" Gulf asked. Without answering, Mew slowly reached out for Gulf's hand and held it in his and Gulf just looked at him with a confused face.

"Do you wanna talk about what happened that night? About why you looked so terrified?" Mew asked, his eyes softened as he looked into Gulf's. Gulf didn't answer, he didn't know whether he should. So instead, he looked down pondering over his decision.

Mew saw how Gulf suddenly went quiet and he reached up to Gulf's face, cupping it with his hands and gently pulled Gulf to face him.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not forcing you," Mew said, his thumbs caressing Gulf's soft cheeks. "I just want to let you know that I'm always here if you wanna talk about anything."

Gulf smiled, reaching up for Mew's hands as he gazed at him. "I know. And that's why I love you."

Mew returned the smile and pulled his face for a quick peck on the lips and said, "I love you, too. Eat up okay, I need to make a call."

Gulf smiled and nodded in tiny that always managed to make Mew's heart flutter. If Gulf wasn't that sick that day he would've picked him up back to their bedroom and kiss him till he drop. Gulf's cuteness could kill even the devil.

"Oh hey, Gulf!" Bright greeted him as he came into the dining room with a carton of orange juice and Gulf just nodded back at him as his mouth was full. "How are you feeling?"

"Feeling much better," Gulf replied after swallowing the chewed pancakes in his mouth.

"Of course you are. Mew been taking care of you like a newborn baby," Bright chuckled, shaking his head as he took a seat opposite of Gulf and Gulf turned red once again.

As they continued their small talk Gulf's eyes suddenly caught the shirt that Bright was wearing. It looked like there was supposed to be three pieces of buttons for the shirt's V-collar but the one at the very top seemed to be missing, leaving a strand of thread hanging off from where it used to be. Gulf squinted his eyes at the button's pattern and he couldn't stop thinking how it looked familiar.

And that's when it hit him.

It was the same pattern from the one he found that night at Tong's house after the incident. His heart started beating so fast in his chest it almost popped out of it's cage and he almost didn't hear Bright calling his name.

"....Gulf?" Bright called him again for the third time, waving his hand in front of Gulf's face to catch his attention. "You okay? You looked pale."

"Um, y-yeah. I just-I-I think I'm having a headache," Gulf stuttered as he staggered up from his seat and trying hard to avoid from making eye contact with Bright. "I'm going back to my bedroom."

"Okay, let me help yー"

"No, no it's okay I'm fine. I'm fine." And with that Gulf hurried back to his room leaving a confused looking Bright alone at the dining table. He barged into his room and started looking for the pants he wore on that night because last he remembered he had stuffed the button inside his pocket. After rummaging through the room he finally found it in the laundry basket and luckily the button was still there where he left it. He scrutinized the button up close and just as he had thought, it was a spitting image as the one he saw on Bright's shirt.

This can't be coincidence, Gulf thought.

His eyes went wide in disbelief as his body started shaking and flashbacks of that night came flooding back to his mind. If what Tong had told him was true, that one of them was the one who killed Type, then the same person could've been the one who came back that night to end Tong's life.

.......

A/N : Another update! Yay! I just can't wait to update this chapter and for you guys to read it so here you go! So how was it? Tense, wasn't it? Aaaaannddd I might have just added a tiny bit of clips from TharnType ss2 👀 did anyone notice? 😆