Thrive in Catastrophe - Chap 84

“You gave me a piece of buttered bread once….Back when I just a b-student…”

“You don’t like it?” Heine grabbed the half eaten biscuit from between Xiao’s fingers and put it directly in his mouth, biting gently into it.

At the crisp sound of the biscuit cracking, Xiao’s sense of reality tore apart and a new image coalesced before him.

In his mind’s eye, Heine used a knife to smooth butter over a piece of bread. His face was calm and focused as though he were performing an important task.

The image loops over and over again, branding deep into his mind.

“I didn’t have red wine and steak.”

At first Heine’s words seems like nonsense. Unexpectedly Xiao understands the meaning.

Although you like red wine and steak, this small luxury of buttered bread was all I had to give you.

Xiao sighed helplessly to himself. Still immersed in his past thoughts, he struggled to align his feelings with his memories. What he wants to ask is why he would prepare bread and butter for others? Although his attachment to this question is strange, he cannot help the subtle and complex mood that undulates through him as he took the bread from Heine.

It was different than his obsession with the curve of Lily’s back or enjoying food and drink in the bar, different from the dance floor….Xiao’s feelings toward Heine are difficult to define and impossible to deny. The more he mulls over the memory, the more he is certain that it is not just fear …it is intertwined with unspeakable desires.

“Hey! I ate off of that biscuit.” Xiao arched a brow at the normally germ aversive Heine.

Heine lightly answers him, “I have kissed you.”

Xiao has difficulty pulling the logic from Heine’s words.

None of what he has said makes sense to him, but Xiao finds that, in this moment, he feels an unparalleled sense of superiority. He recalls Heine’s distance from everyone. He remembers Mark and Liv talking about his obsession with cleanliness…the phrase ‘ I have kissed you’ echoes heavily in Xiao’s mind.

He knows that there is nothing that this man won’t tolerate when it comes to him. No principal he won’t discard to accommodate him.

The sunlight eventually disappears beneath the horizon and darkness eats up the sky.

“Let’s Go.”

Heine abruptly stood up. Now that the light has sank, the outside world looks hollow and full of terrors.

The gate up ahead is about to fall closed. Xiao scrambles to reach Heine.

He will be cut off from him.

Seriously…This guy can’t wait for me!

Without thinking he stretched his hands in front of him, reaching into the dark. The way back felt longer than when they arrived.

Then his palm touched something.

“Colonel Burton?”

Xiao Yan squinted in the dark channel, and felt the powerful muscles along Heine’s back.

He fingers are clasped tightly and he felt the cold…no….hot skin press against his. The heat transfer threatens to scorch and scar his flesh. Xiao’s mood rolls in unpredictable waves, fearful that the man in front of him will turn around and consume him entirely. His breath hitches, unbearably loud in the darkness and his heart begins to beats chaotically. He subconsciously tried to shrink away and pull his hand back, but Heine tightened his hold until Xiao’s wrist creaked, painfully protesting his strength.

“I won’t let you go.” Heine’s voice is soft but resolute, like an oath spoken within his soul.

There was a strange and disturbing element weaving through his tone.

… A threat… a promise… a reality…

“Colonel?”

Heine suddenly stopped walking. Xiao swallowed in anticipation.

“You shoved me into that small reaction capsule. You have no idea how every moment stretched on into an endless hell of fear and despair. You just went your own way and discarded everything that I had endured to keep you safe.”