Beat

Chapter 2 4 Weeks Later

Adrian groaned softly as he rolled over on his left side and slowly opened his eyes only to immediately be met by a pair of glowing neon blue ones centimeters from his own. Adrian immediately recoiled and accidentally rolled off the bed from the opposite side making a loud thud as he hit the ground.
"Good morning," Nox said in an amused tone as she suddenly now stood over a still recovering Adrian in black leggings and a grey crop top. Adrian didn't reply but instead rapidly looked around the large extravagant bedroom trying to take in his surroundings. White wallpaper with black roses covered all the walls, a king size mattress with red silk sheets was on the far right wall just opposite the double doors, which is what Adrian had fallen off of. "You're supposed to say good morning back," Nox added as she continued to look at Adrian expectantly. In fact she'd never taken her eyes off him while his had been darting around frantically.
"Good morning," Adrian managed to get out in a shy, hesitant and quiet tone but didn't dare look her in the eyes, instead keeping his eyes focused on the marble floor like he'd been trained to do all his recent life. Doing otherwise had always been met with an immediate harsh beating.
Nox cocked her head to the side trying to get him to look her in the eye but Adrian kept turning his head away refusing to do so.
"Damn you really did have it tough didn't you kiddo?" She asked him clearly surprised by Adrian's level of submissive behavior and attitude.
Adrian didn't reply verbally or even with a head movement, he just kept looking at the ground, not moving. Nox sighed and knelt down in front of him and kept her eyes on him which made Adrian look away. "Hey," she said in a gentle but the sudden movement of her extending her arm and hand to him made Adrian flinch and block his face now instinctively expecting to be hit. Upon noticing Nox immediately stopped then slowly withdrew her hand away from him, she then sighed and looked down then stood back up. It took him a couple more seconds but then Adrian realized he was shirtless so he turned his back to her hugged himself after retreating into the corner by the wall and bed.
Nox frowned as she watched this unfold, then went over to the dresser of Leo's room and threw a large red t-shirt at Adrian who flinched again when it made contact with him.
"You can put that on if you want. And uh...just chill out here until you feel 100%," Nox said after walking over to the door way. She looked back at the still cowering Adrian one more time then sighed once more and left. She'd taken note of all the bruises and scars on Adrian's excessively skinny and frail body too as she'd watched him...which made watching him that much harder.
On her way back to her room she saw Leo walking towards his room but stopped once it was clear Nox had come from there.
"How..." Leo begun but Nox's expression indicated the answer was not well. "Oh. What did..."
"I didn't do anything. But Leo?" Nox called over her shoulder as they passed each other.
"Hm?"
"Heads up, that kid is really really broken."
Leo simply nodded and knocked on the door to his room as to not surprise Adrian.
"Adrian?" Leo called out yet there was no reply.
Leo walked in and begun looking around for the young man only to find him exactly where he'd ended after Nox left. He hadn't even put the shirt on, only using it as a blanket.
"Hey..." Leo said softly as he slowly extended his arm out and Adrian peaked up from looking at the floor but didn't reply. In fact as soon as their eyes met Adrian immediately looked back down.
"It's ok. I'm not going to make you but you can look at us here and nothing bad will happen."
Leo took a seat on the floor against the wall adjacent to Adrian but did and said nothing else. Maybe 5 minutes later Adrian intended to ask the most obvious question on his mind but ended up saying it as a statement.
"You can kill me...if thats what you want. I won't fight back," he said just above a whisper after rapidly glancing at Leo after he turned towards him but kept his eyes on the floor. "I promise i can do that much right."
Leo glanced at Adrian after he said that then shook his head.
"I didn't save you just to turn around and kill you."
Adrian didn't reply to Leo's answer, he wasn't sure what to say or even if he was allowed to say anything. Eventually Leo stood up and offered his hand to Adrian who looked up at it.
"You put that shirt on and I'll get you some food. You can wait here or come with me."
Adrian stumbled to his feet on his own and winced in pain as he put on the shirt but once he'd done so he was surprised to not see any blood from where his neck was.
"There's no..." Adrian unintentionally said out loud which made Leo turn and look at him.
"Oh...yeah. That. You actually healed really really fast."
"Did you um...did you turn me?"
"Hm?" Leo asked half paying attention at this point but upon Adrian finishing his question Leo shook his head nonchalantly. "No. Just gave you a little of my blood is all. I didn't do anything else. Promise. So don't worry you're not like enslaved to me or anything."
Adrian froze in place upon hearing this which made Leo turn again. "What? Did you want to be?"
Adrian didn't have an answer. The obvious answer was no of course not, but at the same time the very concept of being anything more than essentially a slave was foreign to him. He was 24 and thats all he could remember being.
"No. But I...I just..."
"You don't know what to do right?" Leo asked in a knowing voice. "You see a glimpse of freedom and it's terrifying isn't it?"
"...Y...yeah...." Adrian agreed not sure how Leo was interpreting his thoughts into words so precisely.
Leo nodded and then closed the door, walked back over to Adrian, then took both Adrian's hands in his and looked at Adrian who looked away and flinched.
"Hey Adrian it's ok. Just listen to me for a sec yeah? You don't have to reply or even look at me, just listen. I've been exactly where you are, so I get it. Wanna know what I did when I was in your shoes?"
Adrian replied with an ever so slight nod.
"It took me a lot of time but I eventually took the leap of faith and the one who saved me caught me and said to follow her until I could walk. That's it. Just stand up and follow her until I could walk on my own."
"And she never led you astray?" Adrian asked slowly turning his eyes to look into Leo's which made Leo smile a little.
"Never. There have been times she made me question her but she's never led me astray."
Adrian seemed to realize what he was doing and immediately looked away again.
"Sorry I...I didn't mean to..."
"It's okay. You're okay," Leo said softly and slowly hugged Adrian who tensed up but after a couple seconds relaxed into Leo's embrace.
"Can I...can I hug you back please?"
Leo just nodded so Adrian did, lightly at first, then tightly and he began to cry and fall to his knees to which Leo kept the fall slow so Adrian wouldn't hurt his knees and kept hugging him.
"I'm sorry...I just..." Adrian said through his tears but Leo shook his head.
"You can cry. I won't tell anyone or judge you. And I'll stay with you till you stop."
And true to his word Leo did, he sat there holding Adrian as he let all his emotions out. It took about 20 minutes but eventually Adrian's tears stopped and Leo slowly pulled away.
"Thank you Leo...thank you so much..." Adrian said as he looked into Leo's eyes but this time didn't shy away.
"You're very welcome. Look um don't take this the wrong way but I need to change shirts," Leo said as he looked down at his tear stained white shirt and Adrian looked embarrassed but nodded.
"Sorry that was..." but Leo cut Adrian off.
"It's okay Adrian," Leo said with a smile. "It's okay. I didn't and don't mind. Truly."
Adrian nodded but didn't reply. However he immediately blushed and turned around after he unexpectedly watched Leo take off his shirt revealing his flawlessly smooth, pale, very toned abs, chest, and muscular arms.
Leo hadn't seen Adrian's initial facial reaction but didn't miss the speed that Adrian had turned away with.
"Adrian are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?" Leo said worriedly and reached out but Adrian shook his head rapidly.
"No. I'm not hurt. I'm okay," Adrian responded hurriedly with his back still turned but he glanced back which allowed Leo to see Adrian's blushing cheeks.
"Oh...I see," Leo replied with an unintentional smirk but then turned back and went to his closet to grab a new shirt and put it on.
"I'm covered now," Leo said and Adrian turned around slowly and it was true. "Feeling ready to eat yet?"
"...yeah."
"Good," Leo replied and offered Adrian his hand which Adrian slowly took and followed Leo out of the room.