He was here exactly one hour later.

I rushed to the door and opened it swiftly before he even rang the doorbell.

"Hi."

"Hey." He replied surprised.

I moved away from the door so he could come in.

"I brought cat food.." He lifted the bag in his hand. "Um and some snacks for them.."

"Thank you." I smiled and then I saw there was one more bag. "What's in the other one?"

"Um.cake." He looked at the bag and then me and then back at the bag. "I mean we should eat too."

I couldn't help myself and grinned. "What kind of cake?"

"Strawberry one. It looked like something you would like to eat. I hope I'm not wrong."

I took the cake bag from him. "I love strawberry cake. What's more aesthetic than a strawberry cake?"

"A-ha. That's what I thought." He finally smiled and relaxed.

I led him to my room where the cats were. They were spread on my bed asleep.

"In the white box over there you can find all their toys. I'm going to the kitchen to cut the cake." I rushed to the kitchen to quickly cut the cake.

When I came back to my room he had all three cats jumping around to get the toy he swung over their heads.

I placed the plates on my desk and sat on the sofa while he was making them run all over the room. It was so entertaining to watch.

After a while he started getting tired, but the cats kept teasing him and wrapping around his legs.

"Help!" He turned towards me.

I tried not to laugh too much. I reached for his bag with the cat snacks and passed it to him.

"Give them some snacks and they will calm down. Just be careful because they are still in their play mode and they might scratch you unintentionally."

He opened the bag of snacks and carefully gave them one each.

Once they calmed down, he started petting them. He sat on the ground and they started purring in his lap.

I joined him on the ground, leaned on the bed and passed him the cake plate. Momo came instantly in my lap.

"She favors you." He said taking a bite out of the cake.

"We're a team. The only girl among boys. So, we gotta stick together."I took a bite out of my cake as well."This cake is really good."

"I'm glad." He said, finishing his cake in a few bites.

"Why don't you have a cat?" I asked him.

Suddenly his face expression changed. It was the same exact grim expression he had when we first sat down in a cafe after Momo fell in paint.

"You know I hate when you make that face, but it also intrigues me so much." I said bringing Momo close to my chest like she was going to protect me after I opened this subject.

"What face?" He tried to relax his face.

"It's a villain's face. You know once they realize how much they hate the protagonist."

He raised his brow , definitely insulted.

"I like a good villain. They're more relatable." I smiled. Don't be angry, pleaseeeee.

He looked down at Dorian, not saying anything.

"Sorry." I bit my lips a bit, annoyed I had to go and say that.

"No, no. You're right." He finally spoke. "I get like that, when people ask me questions I don't want to answer. I just wasn't aware I was making that face with you."

"What does that have to do with anything? If you don't want to answer questions like that, how do I change that?"

"I don't know. You tell me." He gave me a smirk that shut me up.

I bit the inside of my cheek in hesitation to say the next thing. "Sometimes I'm confused about you. There are moments I think I'm talking to Lucy. Sometimes Elric. And you two are very different versions."

Suddenly he lifted Dorian and Pierre and moved next to me, leaning on the bed. "It's always Elric to you. Lucy is an asshole. Believe me I'm aware of it."

I smiled. "I'm glad. Don't get me wrong I prefer Elric because I don't know this Lucy persona you have."

He put out his hand. "Give me your phone."

"Why?" I looked down at his hand.

"I'll show you what Lucy can do."

I tapped on the bed to locate my phone and then passed it to him. "No lock."

He opened it and then connected my phone to his phone. He installed something, restarted my phone and then turned towards me.

"Any color you want?"

"Hm...really powder pink?" I tried to peek but he wouldn't let me.

"You like very girly stuff."

I nodded. "I do. You got a problem with that?"

He narrowed his eyes and looked down at me. "You look like you want to fight me."

I chuckled. "It's just that I don't like when people jump to conclusions. I like cool stuff or whatever you think is cool. I like stuff like outfits that make me look more mature. But there is a part of me that likes pink, and other "girly" stuff. And I embrace it all. Most of all, if it's aesthetic I love it."

"It's because you know yourself and you do what you want, despite what people might say to you, is why I like you." He paused after saying that. "There you go." He gave me the phone back and I got distracted.

I unlocked it and .. oh. my.god.

The apps were all over the place and they had a pink overlay. It was just amazing. I went through some of the stuff and it was all so pretty.

"Oh this is way too cool." Remi was going to freak. And I shouldn't let my brothers see my phone. Ace will know right away.

Elric seemed to be basking his ego in pride.

"Thank you. This Lucy guy seems talented." I smiled looking at my phone.

I raised my eyes towards him and realized he was staring at me. And he was very close.

It all came down to me pretty fast. What were we really doing... I had to stop this now.Distract him.

"So you never answered my cat question."

And just like that our moment was over. He pulled back slightly and looked away.

"Is it because of your lifestyle? Because you live alone and.."

He shook his head. "No. That's not why."

I sighed. He didn't look like he was going to tell me.

He glanced at me. "Do you know that I almost ended up in a juvenile detention center once?"

I nodded. "Kai mentioned something like that before. Though I don't know what's a rumor and what's not." I didn't expect this serious talk, but since he's avoiding the cat subject...it still however feels like I'm finally getting close to him again.

"Well that part is true. I uh.. When I got to highschool..before I got taller and stronger... I got bullied by these older kids and..." He avoided eye contact. "I know this is not what you asked about and you want to know about the cat thing, but in order to make sense to you I have to give you a bit of a backstory."

Oh. I see.

I just nodded.

He continued explaining. "So I got an idea. What if I can get on their good side using my still new, but quick developing hacking abilities. It was pretty easy to figure out, the easiest thing to do, was to hack the principal's computer, go through the staff's account and get their tests. And I did it without anyone noticing. However those idiots who got me in the mess, wanted to brag and gave every other senior the stolen tests and the school found out."

"Shit." I covered my mouth.

He smiled. "Oh it did go to shit from here. They ratted me out and not only that, they tried to blame me for other crimes as well. Crimes that would get me to juvie. So my dad, who is a lawyer by the way, cleared me from all charges, got the rest expelled and sued their parents. It was a whole mess but I got out of it."

"Thankfully." I sighed.

However he seemed far from relaxed as his story progressed. "My dad is a bit of a nutjob so his punishment for my actions was that I work off my debt. As in work and get money to pay him for the money he would have gotten if this was another person's case. To be honest I felt like I owe him so I worked my butt off doing part time jobs."

"I see."

He cleared his throat. " I had a cat at that point. I called him Sahara cause he had this like sandy..well not important ..and um.. cause I was away all the time and barely got time for him, there was no one to pay attention to him and my parents kept forgetting to feed him. So apparently he meowed too much around my dad one day and he just chased him outside to cool off. "

My heart beated insanely fast. Anxiety was filling up my chest. I felt like I was going to be sick predicting where this story would go.

"I looked for him for a few days and eventually a neighbor called in a run over cat on the street. I went to check and.. and um..uh" He rubbed his forehead nervously. "I mean how damn hard is it to feed a cat?"

I could barely hold in my tears.

"Would um.." I could feel my voice shaking. "Would it be...um..Can I hug you?"

He just nodded. I leaned forwards and hugged him really tight. I wrapped my hands really tight around his neck and as he relaxed I felt the tears leaving my eyes.

As I sniffled he pulled away to look at me.

"Are you crying?"

I tried to pull back my tears. "Sorry. I just..hearing that story..thinking if that were to happen to my cats.."

"I didn't mean to make you cry."

I shook my head wiping the corner of my eyes. "I didn't know I was such an easy cryer. "

He ruffled my hair and then brushed it back prettily, holding my face in his palms. "Done crying?"

I nodded. "Mmhm. You know at home..we have this family law and order."

Elric put his hands down where they were slightly touching mine. "I think I might have heard something about it from Ace."

"Well it's like rules between us siblings.. Anyways. In Law 5, section four..like rules from each sibling individually I have it in writing, that in my absence they must take care of and feed my cats. I mean they are everyone's cats, but you know.."

"And if they don't?" He asked intrigued.

"The family court deals with it. But I would make sure it's punishable with the death penalty."

He laughed and I forgave him. He thinks it's a joke, but I wasn't joking. There was no joke in the family law and order.

He sighed. "I'm scared that.. while I don't have my life in order, I can't keep a cat. I can't lean on anyone except myself and If I'm busy..."

"Then you can't take care of it. I understand."

There was silence between us again. The rain was pouring outside again. Through my open curtains, we could see the rain with the lights in the garden. It was already dark outside and you couldn't see the dark sky, but the weather was still horrible. I looked back at Elric.

He turned towards me and I instantly turned away towards the window.

The weather might have been awful, but I was really happy. I missed this. I missed him. But now that I got him here with me, would I break the deal we made? Weren't we going to never meet again for Ace's sake?

She avoided eye contact again. And I know exactly why. This was going completely against what we agreed. Why did we break up in the first place if we were going to do this?

But once I heard her voice asking me to come over I couldn't say no. How long has it been since we were alone like this?

I got chills down my back just getting it through my mind that we were alone like this.

Maybe I should just get up and leave. That would be the smart and rational decision. But why the fuck was I glued to the fucking ground?!

I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't moving.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" She finally spoke.

"Nothing. I'll be gaming probably and sleep."

"I doubt Ace would let you do that. He'll either take you somewhere or bring you home to our Christmas party. Maybe both."

"You have a Christmas party?"

"My parents like to throw it. They take a whole week off and we do shopping, go see our relatives and throw a party. Usually me, Ace, Kai and Rehan celebrate somewhere else and join the party later. Or if we are at home, our friends visit us."

"So I should be planning for something of that sort." I smiled.

"Knowing Ace most likely. He's really sociable and doesn't take no for an answer." She leaned her head on the side thinking. "But you don't have to bring gifts though. Though as hosts we always have gifts for everyone. But don't feel burdened to.."

A loud car beep came from outside. Someone was parking in the driveway.

We both instantly looked at each other in panic.

"Shit.shit.shit.shit." She cursed and got up, closing the door to her room.

"I thought no one was going to come." I said getting up as well.

"That's what I thought too. Stay here. Hide the plates and if you hear footsteps coming closer to the room hide somewhere. I'll get rid of whoever it is and come back."

She slid through the door and left me alone. I looked down at the cats who were pretty annoyed they got woken up.

"Sorry." I whispered and went towards the door to hear what they were saying.

I wanted to surprise you with an early and longer update of the story since I love all the support I've been getting lately. Thank you so much for the comments, the votes and taking the time to read the story. So there you go. My gift to you.