ᵢₘₐgᵢₙₑ ➳ Michael Gray [ON HOLD]

➳ chapter twenty-three - the wake up call

《 not every 'sorry' deserves an 'it's okay' in return 》

➳

Michael had stayed at the office that night, leaving Finn to comfort Arabella and wallowing in his own self-hatred over what he had done. He returned early the next morning, running on whiskey, some coffee, a lack of sleep, and pure willpower, to clean up his mess. He counted it as a step forward in his pitiful plan to seek forgiveness from his fiancé.

Finn, Arabella, Hades, and Lennox had all slept in the guest room, Arabella having passed out from pure exhaustion and Finn caving in to sleep himself when the urge had simply become too hard to fight, no matter how much he wanted to watch over his sleeping best friend. He had awoke the next morning to the sound of Lennox pawing at the closed door and whining lowly, clearly wanting to be let out but also not wanting to wake up the sleeping brunette.

Finn immediately knew what that meant - Michael had returned. And after what he had found out from Arabella, there was no way that Finn was going to leave him to get on with whatever the hell he was doing. So, he opened the door and watched as Lennox shot out of it, being quick to follow behind him and finding Michael in Arabella's room.

He watched for a moment as Michael gently cooed at Lennox, who greeted him happily, though not as enthusiastically as usual, clearly still not fully over his human being upset. His frown deepened for a moment as he eyed the glass that Michael must have been collecting and piling up, before it softened slightly as Michael quickly lifted the dog onto the bed while mumbling about the floor being too dangerous.

He did genuinely care about Arabella and the dogs...but that still didn't take away his actions from the previous night. And so Finn's expression darkened once again and he darted forwards before Michael could comprehend what was happening, pinning the older man against the wall.

Michael made no attempt to fight back and Finn growled at him, instead raising one brow at him while Lennox snapped his jaw warningly.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You threw a bottle?! Have you gone fucking mental, Michael?" Finn ranted at him, clearly frustrated by the lack of reaction or response from his cousin, resulting in him spitting out, "Oh great, the silent game, yeah? Let me just ask one question - is the next one going to be aimed at Arabella?"

That set Michael off.

The older man quickly switched their positions, gently slamming Finn against the wall, and gripping his jaw in warning, "You can be angry at me, I don't give a fuck. But you remember your goddamn place Finn."

The younger Shelby scoffed and tightened his grip on Michaels wrinkled shirt, pulling him closer to him.

"My place? Your place will be 10 feet underground if you pull anything like that again"