I nod at Aiden.

His jaw tightens. With new determination, he knocks on the door of Aaron Bright's cottage.

We're not letting go of his little bullies. They sent mails with Aaron's account, plus other things, so we're here to talk and see what we can do.

A boy opens. He's frowning, a wary look on his face. He seems ready to run, which is not a good sign. "Hello, which one are you?" Aiden asks. For once, he's almost polite.

The boy gulps. "I'm Michael, sir. But everything's alright, so you can move to the next house." When he starts to close the door, I push my foot between it, so he can't.

"We'll decide if everything's okay. Can we come in? Yeah? Great." I start to move past him, but he pushes me back.

"We, ah, actually, one of us is sick, so it's better if you return again later." He seems nervous, but he really wants us gone.

"Who's sick?" Aiden cocks an eyebrow. Michael's eyes avert. "Aaron is, sir. Aaron Bright. I think he stole something, since he doesn't have any money, and it must have been outdated."

I blink. That's bullshit.

"Now let us in, maybe we can help," Aiden says through gritted teeth. But the door's already closed in front of our noses.

I turn to Aiden. "This isn't right." His hands tighten into fists at his sides. "The hell it isn't. He just closed the fucking door in front of us!"

I lay a hand on his arm. "No, I mean that I can feel something isn't right about this situation. First of all, why would he lie about Aaron stealing food?"

He's scowling harder, now, too. "We both know he wouldn't do that," he grunts. I nod. Aaron might be completely bullied to the point he has no self worth, he'd never do anything illegal.

His bullies, though. Multiple illegal things, and Aaron thinks they're all okay. But they're not, and that's why we're fucking here.

I nod at him again. With his FBI training, Aiden can easily get doors down. That's not needed now, but it comes in handy sometimes.

Within seconds, the door is open. Only open, seeing we'd have to pay for it otherwise. Two boys, of which one is Michael, startle away from a doorway of some room.

"What—" Michael mutters, but I'm already pushing him aside to look in the room. The other boy tries to stop me too, but I'm stronger than him.

I look in the room and— what the fuck. Stansley's sons are squeezing the air out of Aaron, with a blindfold too and his hands tied to to his back.

A weird sounds is coming from Aaron, though he looks unconscious. "Wha—get off him!" I yell, startling both of them. They release the poor boy, who slumps on the floor.

Aiden, next to me, huffs something in disbelief. "Do you guys even realize how fucking dangerous this is?" he then shouts, and his anger even scares me.

He pulls out his phone, takes a picture of the unconscious boy and then walks towards him. I quickly join, pushing the bastards away while I pass.

I pull off the blindfold and untie him completely. Aaron opens his eyes, grabbing his throat as he coughs and desperately tries to get enough air.

I tuck him closer to me, softly massaging the red, sore spots there. "Sh, Aaron, I want you to slow down your breathing. Look at me. Look in my eyes," I tell him.

Panicked, he looks in my eyes, but he can't seem to control his breathing. I place one hand on his chest, the other cupping the back of his head. "Focus on me. On my breathing, yes? Look. One breath in . . . and one out."

His wide eyes focus on my chest, and he tries to even his breathing to mine. "They-they were—" I shake my head, placing a finger on his lips. "I know, I know. Just keep breathing for me."

He eventually gets back on the right breathing rhythm, calming down. That is, until one of Stansley's sons rolls his eyes and takes a step closer.

"Yo, why would you give a fag so much of your time? He fucking touched Michael!" He points at Michael, who widens his eyes.

Aaron ducks and scrambles away in fear of the boy. "I-I didn't," he whispers, tears leaving his eyes again. They cover his pale cheeks completely.

"He touched me, and I immediately stopped him," he whispers after it, still crawling backwards, until his back meets the wall and he's cornered. A sob leaves his mouth. "But you didn't listen and just-just . . ."

The rest of his sentence is muffled under his cries. His whole body slumps while he tries to hide himself.

Aiden grunts, "And that's enough." He pushes all the jerks out of the room and locks the door, and I hope it helps Aaron to calm down.

But it doesn't. He even flinches when we try to reach him, so I take Aiden and sit in the corner the furthest away from him.

"He doesn't trust us," I explain. "Should we try calling Seb or Micah? I mean, they've been with him the whole day, and you heard the stories in the car." They couldn't stop talking about how cute Aaron's laugh was.

He frowns and nods. "But call Seb, not Micah. You know he'll get paranoid, and we do not need that right now."

I agree. Micah would be freaking out.

So, I text Seb to get here asap. Fortunately, he immediately answer, saying he'll be here in ten minutes. I guess we'll have to wait.

****

A knock on the door makes both of us look up.

Aaron is now in full-on panic mode, but he just flinches and cries even more when we get closer.

"Thank God," I sigh and open the door. Sebastian marches in, eyes narrowed. "What the fuck went down here?" His eyes fall on the trembling boy. "Oh no."

I watch him crouch down in front of the small boy. "Hey, Aaron, hey. It's me, Seb," he whispers, and reaches to brush a strand of hair away.

Aaron watches him with those big blue eyes of him. I haven't seen someone with eyes that blue, and it fascinates me. It's really special.

"Do you trust me?" Seb whisper-asks, now cupping Aaron's cheeks. Aaron nods a little and slumps even more.

"They-they," he sobs. "Sh, it's okay. First, I want you to calm down," Seb stops his crying. I'm surprised how well he does this, because he never likes taking care of our subs.

Aaron gasps, furiously wiping his tears away. "I-I thought I was gonna die," he whimpers, hiding his face in Seb's shirt-covered chest.

Well, he kind of was dying.

"We're taking him with us," I firmly say to Aiden, who doesn't even blink. "Of course, he can't stay here," he agrees, for once.

Seb rubs Aaron's back while they talk, and the soft sobs slow down. I kneel next to them and this time, Aaron doesn't flinch away. Instead, he blinks up at me with tired eyes, waiting.

I soften my voice. I feel so much sympathy for him, why would anyone on earth ever dare to hurt this boy?

"Why don't you pack your things and come home with us? I promise you you'll be safe there." Struggles and doubts appear behind those blue eyes.

"I-I don't know. I'm a student, you're professors and I-I'm a-a—" He swallows before he's able to end that sentence. "I'm a fag," he whispers then, so silent I almost miss it.

Fucking hell. I'm gonna kill whoever put that in his head, and I already know who it is.

I take his hands in mine. "Aaron, don't think that. Look at me." He does. "You are not a fag. That's not a word you're ever gonna use to describe yourself with again, am I right?"

He quickly nods. I go on. "Now, don't overthink coming home with us. Because you won't stay here. I'm not gonna let that happen. Pack your things, and we'll leave."

He blinks, but there's nothing to discuss. So he stands up, on wobbly legs, but he refuses any help.

While he packs his things, Seb offers to help, and is sent to the bathroom. When Aaron looks down at the hoodie he got from Micah and sees it got tore apart, his bottom lip starts to tremble again.

But then he frowns, wipes his tears before he can even cry. I can see him trying to ignore the hoodie, but it's hard for him.

It seemed to be his favorite. Now that has been ruined by those jerks, too.

Aiden takes his bag and I take his hand, while Seb locks the door behind us. I hear laughs coming from the living room, and it angers me how they're unbothered by what just happened.

Later. First, Aaron needs to feel safe. Aaron, who slightly hides more behind me as we passthrough the living room to the front door.

"Wait—what the fuck? You can't take him with you!" Stansley's son calls, but I ignore him and walk faster. Aaron quickly follows.

He gets in the backseat of the car, while Aiden gets in the driver's eat and I in the passenger seat. Seb joins Aaron, but takes distance.

I frown at Seb. "Didn't you come here with a car?" He gives me a shrug. "I ran."

Rolling my eyes, I see Aaron completely pushes against the door, crying again. Seb reaches, but I shake my head and stop him.

"He needs space right now, not comfort," I whisper. That makes Seb frown, but for once, he listens to me.

And yes, a few minutes later, Aaron falls asleep in the car.