To Save Our Families, Let's 'Marry' (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 34

Henry was woken up to a shove, his body falling sideways onto the mattress, pain igniting in his arm and making him hiss. With a glare, he turned to the beauty who had pushed him. "Is that how you treat sleeping people? Why didn't you let me keep sleeping!" From a distance, the man recognised his brother's laughter. He kept his glare at Joshua, the older man showing an apologetic yet horrified expression upon his delicate features. It took Henry's half-asleep self a couple second to register the finger pointing, following the direction until he came face-to-face with the photograph lit up on Archer's phone; he hadn't even registered the third person in the room yet.

At first glance, the picture was undeniably beautiful, there was little to fault with it. However, Henry was quickly taunted by what the picture showed. It was him and Joshua, leaning against each other, sleeping.

Despite the rougher look both had been sporting since the morning, both men had relaxed, almost serene faces. Their pretty features made them look like a pair of troublemaking teenagers that had exhausted themselves after messing around too hard.

What truly got to the younger man was how comfortable he seemed with his head on Joshua's shoulder. He knew it was not such a big deal for him, he had fallen asleep with people he barely knew through his wilder days while studying abroad. Normally it would not pose a problem to him. But since the trauma from the marriage meeting, he was quickly becoming self-conscious of some of the actions he was used to, especially so when Joshua Lore was involved.

Acknowledging the latter fact was what really made his blood run cold, he was a happily straight man, even if he was currently pretending to be gay, there should be no reason for him to feel conscious of any man. Especially if that man was Joshua Lore.

In the end, everyone watched as the man's face went through a rollercoaster of emotions that eventually came back to his initial expression, irritation. Henry was glad to find his mentality had become a little stronger after everything that had happened in the past week, applauding himself for managing to dismiss the entire situation.

"Don't take pictures of us, it is creepy," Henry complained, much to Archer's surprise, he had been expecting a slight outburst; well, he was not sure what to expect in reality, not after the weird behaviour he had witnessed in the bathroom of the restaurant. "And don't push me!"

Joshua, who had found himself calming down after he realised Henry had landed on his injured arm – the younger man had been subconsciously clutching it – let out a sigh. "It isn't my fault; my brother woke me up to the picture."

The two men shared a look, annoyance aside, they seemed to sympathise with each other.

Of course, this small interaction only further convinced their siblings that the chemistry between the two men was good.

Joshua watched as Henry looked away first, the younger man letting out a sigh and pushing his hair out of his face. "I'm too awake now," he heard Henry complain under his breath, having to hold back a laugh; he sounded like a child. To keep himself from indulging too much in teasing, Joshua turned to his older brother. He had been so shocked by seeing that first thing when he opened his eyes, he hadn't heard a word of why Archer was waking him up.

"Are we leaving?"

"Soon, eat some curry first." Archer received a nod in return as he watched his younger brother stretch a little. He crouched down and picked up the crutches for his younger brother, turning back as he heard footsteps at the door, Samuel had also come into the room.

"Henry, you too. Come and eat."

After a decent amount of grumbling and fumbling, the two me found themselves sat opposite each other at the dining table, a steaming plate of fresh rice and curry in front of them each. The scent of the curry was deep and made both men's mouth water. While they had both been reluctant, now presented with the homely meal, both eagerly dug in.