Hidden In Plain Sight (MxM)✔

Chapter 18 - Just a Talk

Luke tapped his knee nervously as he waited in the expansive office. Archibald had returned him to the mansion nearly an hour ago, where he was then escorted here to wait until Nicholas had time for him.

Usually the Archduke would drop everything he was doing when the human was around, but Luke understood why that wasn't the case now. After all, they literally just had a falling out and it wasn't like he'd had a lot of time to wrap his head around the lies his Master had spewed.

Leaning back in the office chair, Luke tried to decide the order in which he'd reveal everything. The woman seemed knowledgeable enough, but in hindsight, he realized he had been extremely stupid for revealing he was a human right in front of her. In his haste, Luke hadn't even bothered to make sure no one else was around to see. 

Then there was the fact that he had completely forgotten to ask her if she knew anything about his tattoo. That was a key piece of information he should have brought up.

Why was he so stupid?

Right here, right now, Luke swore he was going to get to the point. No excuses, no hesitation. He needed to stop putting things off. The only problem was deciding which truths would be safe. As much as he liked Nicholas, what the woman said made him realize he couldn't be so careless about which Vampires to trust anymore. 

"Luke." Nicholas greeted the human as he entered the room.

Luke watched as the man sat behind the desk and folded his hands professionally. His usual smile replaced by a blank stare.

"I'm sorry." Luke started. "I-"

Nicholas held up a hand to stop him. "First, are you okay?"

The human paused. "Yeah?"

"Good. Your Master is still here by the way. After the scene he caused and what you told me, I thought it'd be best for his safety. According to your story, someone has threatened to kill the both of you by tonight if I'm still alive, correct?"

"That's right." 

"Do you know who it was?"

He shook his head. "They were completely cloaked. I didn't see anything distinguishable, aside from their eyes, but that's not even very helpful since everyone has yellow eyes."

"Hmmm." Nicholas thought. "Last night, I asked if there was anything else you were hiding. If I'm going to help protect the two of you, I insist that you tell me everything before we go any further with this."

That was fine by Luke as he immediately got to the point. "Maximillia wanted me to convince you to fight the emperor." He replied, catching Nicholas off guard. "That's what I tried to tell you the first time I asked to speak alone. That's also why I didn't want any guards around, because I didn't want to tell you to do something dangerous and I wasn't sure how she'd react if she knew I wouldn't do it."

"...Is that so?" The Vampire blinked.

"I'm sorry I didn't say it. I wanted to! I just...I didn't want you to get involved in something like that. I didn't want to encourage it. I just...I just wanted to be with you without all the noise, but now I have someone who wants me to kill you on top of that and I just don't know what to do..." Luke slouched in his seat.

After a moment, Nicholas sighed. "You should have been straightforward with me. I would have understood..."

"I didn't want you to think I was only with you for the benefits." The human mumbled. "Everyone wants you to do something for them, and you don't seem to like that. But then, whenever we're alone, I just want to forget everything and..."