CHAPTER 374: EXPLANATION

"I met up with Ava earlier," Lane said, as they finally sat down to dinner. The note he had left earlier didn’t really explain anything - Lane had just written that he was going out, but should be back soon - but that was just because he had left in a bit of a hurry, and couldn’t have been bothered to explain. His whereabouts weren’t a secret, though, and he had been planning to tell Damien about it once they were both home.

"Oh?" Damien looked up from his plate. "To ask about the hypnosis?"

"Yes."

Among other things... But the rest Lane didn’t feel ready to discuss with Damien yet... Not for the foreseeable future. Perhaps not until he tied Damien to himself with marriage or something.

"And what did she say?" Damien asked calmly, not suspecting anything. Or at least acting as if he hadn’t noticed anything off.

"Well... She said that the excuse I had given Ethan is rather unlikely... Pretty much impossible, in fact."

Damien paused for a moment, his hands frozen in the middle of cutting a piece of chicken cutlet.

Seeing his reaction, Lane grew a bit worried. "You didn’t pass that explanation to the Association, did you?"

"...No," Damien shook his head. "But... What are you going to do now?"

Lane shrugged his shoulders. "There’s not much I can do, is there? Ava told me that if anyone asks, I should just say that I have no idea why I was able to resist the hypnosis for so long."

"Is that so?"

Damien still looked worried. Because of course he was - after all, it could potentially land Lane in deep trouble if his real rank was discovered! It would already be the second time he had lied to the Association about his rank...

Lane held back a chuckle, looking at his boyfriend with a blissful smile playing on his lips. He had completely forgotten that not long ago, he was also kind of stressing over it, and now fully enjoyed Damien’s reaction. Not that he liked making the man worry so much... But it was still nice to see. It showed that Damien cared about him a lot.

However, while he might have enjoyed it, he didn’t want to unnecessarily keep Damien in such uncertainty for too long. So, he said, "Don’t worry about it too much. If you haven’t mentioned it in your report, it’s unlikely that the Association will find out."

Damien’s brows furrowed (not that they hadn’t been furrowed before, but now they furrowed even more). "Why? Do you think that your parents won’t use this information?"

Ethan had witnessed it, after all, and they both knew that he was a spy for the Allens. Thus, it was reasonable to assume that he would inform them about everything... And Lane had initially thought so as well.

But things had changed now.

"Well, here’s the thing..."

Lane briefly explained everything he had heard from Nyla. After which, Damien’s frown further deepened, causing a deep crease to form between his brows.

Lane should really think about doing something about Damien’s frowning habits. Although Damien’s frowny face was kinda hot, he would develop wrinkles at an early age at this rate. Not that he wouldn’t look good with wrinkles... But still, those features were better off reserved for his elderly age. First, Lane wanted to enjoy Damien’s wrinkle-free face for as long as possible.

He didn’t get to think about Damien’s wrinkle risks for too long, though, because the man soon spoke up, dragging Lane back to what should have been the most important issue at the moment.

"It is suspicious that he has omitted it from his reports."

"Yes, it is," Lane agreed with a light nod.

"Do you have any idea why he might have done it?"

Lane only shrugged his shoulders in response. "Not for any good reason, that’s for sure!"

Although there hadn’t been any bad blood between him and Ethan in the past - they were just two guys who hooked up in their teens, for the sole reason that neither of them had any other opportunities at that moment - there wasn’t any friendship between them either. Or anything at all. They hadn’t even spoken to each other for over a decade... At least not when Lane was in his real body. They had gotten into a bad argument during the Guides’ strikes years ago, but Lane had been possessing another Guide back then, so Ethan had no idea that was him. In other words, up to this point, Ethan had no reason to do anything, either bad or good, to Lane.

Which meant that his only motivation could be his contract with the Allens, which meant to spy on and potentially harm Lane. Other than that, perhaps Damien could also be a motivation, if Ethan truly had developed a crush on the man (which wouldn’t be weird. Damien was super hot, after all, so even if Ethan had approached him with ulterior motives, he could easily have caught on feelings. Even Lane had had!), then he would have wanted Lane out of the way. Meaning, he’d have even more reasons to cause him trouble...

And Damien understood it as well. At least the ’spy for Lane’s parents’ part, as he didn’t think much of Ethan’s seduction attempts. He sat still in place for a while, staring at his plate, but with his mind somewhere else...

No matter how much he thought about it, though, he couldn’t even begin to guess what might have been going through Ethan’s mind. Such actions, intended to hurt others, were generally hard for him to comprehend, and on top of that, he didn’t know much about Ethan or Lane’s parents. So, in the end, he could only sigh.

"Be more careful from now on," he advised Lane.

They couldn’t change what had already happened, so the only option they had was to move forward with caution, as to not give Ethan any other things he could use against Lane.

Lane nodded his head absentmindedly. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

Damien glanced at him, but didn’t say anything. He just let out yet another sigh, and got back to eating. Somehow, he felt as all the trouble they had gone through so far was only the beginning...

But he had known from the start that getting involved with Lane would turn his organized life into a complete mess and chaos, so he couldn’t really complain.