Pit Babe: Speed of Love (PeteWay, KentaKim, WinnerDean)

Chapter 48

"It's all my fault..." Babe murmured as he heard Charlie's lies. Jeff obviously couldn't hear that from his position near the bed, but he quickly realized that there was something wrong since he noticed a rapid movement of Charlie's head, as if he had heard something from outside. Charlie was too lost in his thoughts to catch Jeff's conversation with Babe, but now that he was fully awake, he could easily hear everything going on in the corridor.

"Tell me you didn't know..." Charlie said. It could simply be that Babe was walking by and as he heard Charlie talking to his brother he stopped to overhear, but a part of him made him believe that Jeff told Babe to stay there as a punishment, since hearing what his actions were causing to Charlie would have surely been terrible. Jeff looked at his brother and saw the sense of betrayal in Charlie's eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Jeff asked, pretending to be absolutely innocent. Charlie's tone became more resolute as he repeated the same question. Knowing that the situation was getting worse by the moment, Babe stepped forward, so that he could look inside the room too. Jeff's eyes widened, he stood up and rushed to him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pushing him away.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jeff shouted. Babe gulped and looked down, the brief moment he managed to see Charlie was enough to make him feel ten time worse: he couldn't believe that Charlie's cute smile, something he easily took for granted, could now be a distant memory.

"I was passing by..." Babe responded.

"Passing by? Didn't Tony beat you up enough to teach you that you shouldn't overhear other people's conversation!? You didn't cause enough troubles!?" Jeff shouted as tears fell from his eyes. It wasn't an act anymore, he was telling Babe what he felt for real, that he hated him for making his dear brother suffer like that.

"I'm sorry..." that was the only response Babe managed to make. Jeff glared at him with even more disgust and disappointment, he pushed him so hard that Babe hit the other side of the corridor with his back.

"Get lost..." Jeff added coldly.

"No..."

"What?" Jeff asked perplexed and even worried as he heard his brother say that word.

"I said no..."

"But you said that you didn't want to see him" Jeff replied.

"No, I said that I didn't want him to see me like this... but since he has seen me... Babe... come here... please" Charlie said as he slowly opened his arms to let Babe hug him.

"I'm sorry..." Babe repeated as he stepped back and walked away. He was the reason Charlie was suffering and there was no way he could fix that. However Charlie interpreted it differently, he thought that Babe didn't want to stay with him anymore, that maybe what Way said about Babe's relationship wasn't caused by manipulation alone... maybe Babe couldn't have a long relationship at all.