Aaren's POV
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I plop myself onto a chair in the back room of the store, hunching over and laying my forearms on top of each other on my knees. My glare settles on the floor beneath me as my mind practically roams wildly.

How could Leon risk my family like he did without doing shit to help, especially when they caught Jane by the hair?

All he did was stand there until he was taken down by that guy, and Jane, being the person she is, assisted him. I swear, she's too nice for her own good.

Sometimes you have to put your foot down and say, "No, I'm not having this. You're on your own, man."

That's what should have happened this time.

We don't even know Leon. He just randomly showed up and brought his problems to us, and look where that lead things.

Not just that, but if he's going to stay with us he can't just not have our backs when shit hits the fan.

I guess that's where most of my anger is coming from.

That he didn't do anything to protect both himself and my family when he was perfectly capable of doing so.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts as a bruised hand lands on my arm, and I raise my eyes to meet Éloïse's concerned ones. I'm still shaking with fury at the whole situation, but I won't act out on her.

She's family.

She gives me a small smile as she kneels in front of me, asking in a soothing tone, "Are you okay? That was quite the show you put on back there."

I muster a tiny scoff at this, rolling my eyes as I put up my usual façade.

"I did what I felt was necessary," I defend myself, partly avoiding the question.

"Don't you think you went a bit too far, though?" she carefully pushes, squeezing my arm gently to get me to look at her. "True, he wasn't much of a help today. But I don't think he deserved to get hit again."

"A bit too far?" I repeat, almost laughing at this. "All I did was punch him. He's lucky that I didn't do anything worse to his ass."

"Aaren," Éloïse scolds quietly as she shakes her head.

"Look...maybe I did overreact a little. I let myself go in that moment, but it's not like it matters now," I comply with a sigh. "What's done is done. I can't take back what I did."

"Well, you could at least apologize?" Éloïse suggests.

I tsk, "Apologize? I would be lying if I did, 'cause I'm not sorry for my actions."

She lifts an eyebrow at me, seeing past my sharp words. I sigh even deeper.

"Okay, I'm kind of sorry. But I'd still be lying. No matter how this turned out, the result of it probably would've ended the same every time. Me being pissed at him."

She giggles, playfully nudging me. "I don't doubt it for a second, but c'mon. You care, I know you do."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I joke, feeling a bit better now. "Thanks for coming to talk to me."

"What are friends for?" she grins, standing up and lending me a hand.

I take it and she helps me up, leading me back to the others. I shove my hands into my pockets, my tiny smile dropping at the sight of him.

I roll my eyes, knowing what I'm about to do.

"Listen up because I'm only going to say this once," I announce, gathering the attention of both Leon and my sister. "I've got something to say."

Jane hums and Leon just stares at me, waiting for me to continue. Éloïse stands next to me, making sure I spit it out.

I groan a bit to myself before speaking again.

"I'll admit, I acted rashly towards you, Leon. But if you think this is a full blown apology, you're sadly mistaken. And everything I said about my family still stands. Besides...

"Life is too short to be sorry, and it's too short to have regrets. So I refuse to be or have any."

Jane smiles softly at me, knowing this is as good as my expressions of sorrow will get.

Leon has put up a barrier between himself and all of us, but I can still see in his eyes that I surprised him with even confronting him about my actions. He also seems to understand that I'm the stand-off-ish type of guy, and simply nods in response.

Éloïse pats my shoulder, grinning at me cheekily. "See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"Says you," I protest teasingly. "That was difficult for me to manage."

"I'm glad you at least tried to apologize, little bro," Jane tells me proudly. "You don't typically do these things unless it's important."

"Well, I did it because I know you and El weren't happy with me for what I did. But don't think this is me goin' soft," I state, aiming at them all with my index finger.

They all chuckle at my statement, with the exception of Leon and his smirk.

"Oh! By the way," Jane starts, "while you two were gone, I spoke to Leon and it looks like he's apart of our group now."

He nods, arms crossed as he leans back in his chair, smirk still present as his eyes calmly flash from one to the other.

I purse my lips at this news, not very excited about our newest edition, but I'll have to put up with him anyhow.

So long as he doesn't fuck anything up and can hold his own, I can learn to accept having him be apart of our group.

Possibly.

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-CastrarWolf & Taegikook224