Uncaging Bunny/LT Fanfiction

Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Distraction

Larry Sandoval was not having a good day.  In fact, he'd not been having a good several months.  He'd spent much of a rare day away from home running imaginary errands, shopping, anything to get away from what he considered his gilded cage, his home or rather, the house he shared with his husband, and a revolving door of what appeared to him to be persons of questionable character and purpose.  He'd been seriously considering leaving his husband, and it had been a long time coming.

He'd been fighting back tears most of the day, contemplating his future with a healthy dose of fear, dread and anxious excitement.  When he'd pulled his black BMW into the underground parking garage of a luxury hotel in downtown Manhattan, he'd made what he'd hoped was the first step towards the latter.  With shopping bags in hand, all of which contained clothing and toiletries enough for a few nights, he made his way to the main lobby of the luxury establishment after he'd did his best to make himself presentable in his rearview mirror, wiping away the remnants of spent tears and puffy red eyes.

He took a deep breath, covering his eyes with his designer sunglasses while he stood in the center of the hotel's spacious and elegantly designed lobby, looking towards the front desk.  Was he really about to do this?  Was he finally about to leave his husband, the man with whom he'd once thought himself to be in love? He questioned now if it was ever love, or just something else. Amazing how things change. 

He now found the man with whom he'd spent much of his young adulthood was nothing more than a stranger to him.  A hardened man so different from the man he first knew.  A man who was seemingly living a double life.  On the one hand he presented himself as the deceptively charming man, now holding an important government position as a high-profile UN Diplomat, having pulled himself up from a hopeless background, but who could also be cruel, domineering, and controlling, possessing wealth and contacts obtained from what appeared to be questionable means. 

Larry never asked where the money came from, and he was grateful his husband didn't enlighten him.  Larry didn't want to know.  And he hoped he was wrong in his thinking that maybe his husband was more than he appeared to be.

Larry had long since dreamt of this moment, taking steps to leave his husband and the "gilded cage" he shared with him, but he didn't dare try before.  Until now, he'd never had the strength or the courage to even attempt it.  Even now, he didn't know if he could still go through with it, but he'd long since had enough of living the lie that was his life.

Larry's eyes wandered the spacious and elegant hotel lobby.  He felt paranoid.  Was his possessive husband going to suddenly pop from out of nowhere and drag him back home?  The lobby was crowded.  As the hustle and bustle of people rushed by in front of and behind him, he continued to stand in the center of the plush lobby, trying to decide what to do.  His breathing rapidly increased. Even under the fashionable clothes he wore, his skin felt clammy.  The frantic beating of his heart sounded deafening to his own ears.  He felt like he was going to have a panic attack.  His mouth felt dry, and he could feel beads of sweat start to form on his forehead.

Larry swallowed hard, reaching up with his free hand to wipe the moisture from his brow.  He blew out a steadying breath before taking a step towards the hotel's front desk when he was suddenly bumped by a passerby, making him drop some of his bags.

"Sorry, man," the passerby uttered absently over his shoulder without looking back at Larry as he rushed on his way.

As Larry reached down, picking up his bags, now seriously considering aborting his attempt at freedom, he could feel the vibration of his phone going off in his pocket.  As he'd done most of the day, he ignored it.  He didn't have to look at his phone to know who it was.  It was a rare moment when his husband allowed him to go out without his husband's henchmen but instead, he seemed to call him every hour on the hour checking on his whereabouts.  It both angered and frightened Larry, whose husband treated him more like a possession than his partner.  He could feel his eyes starting to tear up again as he suddenly felt overwhelmed.