《Anamnesis》Chapter 5: What Truth?
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Bren wakes up and feels a warm body nestled into his back. Blinking his eyes, he slowly remembers where he is at. A glance at the alarm clock that sits beside the bed tells him it's only 4:30. He doubts that Jax will wake up early since he always seems to be late for work. The alarm clock is set for 9am, he taps it a couple of times to turn it off. He rolls over to his back and can feel Jax’s warm breath at his side. He pulls his phone out and sets his alarm for 8 and puts it on vibrate, then rolls over to look at Jax who is sleeping peacefully. His hair is down and has matted across part of his face. Chuckling, he brushes the mess from his face but quickly curses himself as Jax’s eyes pop open, dark grey and blue but unfocused. He stares into the strange, yet beautiful, abysses. They slowly shut back, and his breathing is unchanged. Bren lays there a moment just holding his breath, thankful that he didn’t wake Jax up. And after a couple of minutes he closes his eyes and falls back asleep.
Bren shifts slightly as he feels his phone vibrating. His movement jostles a sleeping Jax and he grunts in his sleeping state. Bren realizes Jax has snuggled up against his chest. He looks down and ever so slightly he brushes the hairs on the top of Jax’s head and smiles as he thinks of Jax wondering what these feelings are that he is having. It is best to push these thoughts and feelings away. He decides that he will wait on the couch for Jax to wake up. Jax will die of embarrassment if he wakes up to him in the bed. Especially within their warm snuggles. Gently, Bren moves Jax off of his arm, gets off the bed and heads to the couch.
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Not long after he has reached the kitchen he gets a message from Sina asking if he is awake. A short message exchange reveals that they are headed towards Jax's apartment. “Bring coffee!” he messages back.
***
The erratic tapping of a bird wakes Jax up. The little beast sounds like it is trying to break the window glass. “Break the glass…. Oh no!” He rolls over and buries his face into the bed and his nose is filled with cloves and a light scent of leather. His eyes widen as he realizes that Bren must have slept on the bed last night. He breathes in again savoring the scent but turns red realizing what he has done. In the few years that he has memories he hasn’t thought much about what he feels for anyone. He was just focused on surviving day to day. Unsure how to deal with the flood of emotions that he is dealing with, Jax decides that this one needs to wait for sure.
Knocking on his front door breaks his reverie and he rolls off his bed. He stands and grimaces at the pain in his carefully bandaged feet. Looking down to see the handiwork, he reminds himself to thank Bren for taking care of him last night. He tries to adjust his clothing and hair and then reaches for his bedroom doorknob but hears the front door open and Bren shushing Fuchsia’s loud voice. An unpleasant feeling resonates from his stomach as he thinks about why Fuchsia and Sina are at his apartment. A couple of minutes later he smells coffee and something sweet, maybe pastries. Before heading out to face his company he takes a minute to look around his room for his bottle of Blue Cryo, but he doesn’t see it. Hopefully, Bren isn’t thinking about keeping it. He can’t afford another order yet and doesn’t want to deal with his supplier unless he has to. The guy freaks him out.
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Finally turning the knob, he heads straight to the bathroom making sure to avoid eye contact. He turns the sink water on and rinses his face off. Then he brushes his hair and makes himself look a little more presentable.
Taking a deep breath to prepare he heads out into the living room. Fuchsia and Bren are childishly arguing over something, and Sina is staring at them while stirring a cup of coffee. She glances over, smiles, and pats the chair beside her. Jax walks over and sits down. Sina leans over and says “Let’s enjoy the show!” She giggles and passes a bottle of water to Jax and points to the pastry box. Jax opens the box of pastries and smiles remembering that Keri sometimes brought him pastries when he was staying in the hospital. There were cream cheese pastries, fruit pastries and some cinnamon rolls. Jax reached for a cream cheese pastry and laid it on a napkin.
Fuchsia is getting louder and she is tapping her purple nails on the counter top. She is very animated and it is almost comical to watch. Bren on the other hand looks like he has had it and finally yells “Dammit Fuchsia he deserves to know the truth, and so do we!”
Jax drops his bottle of water on the floor, it rolls back and forth until eventually it stops. The sudden sound gets Bren’s and Fuchsia’s attention as they stare at the bottle and then at the source. They both look shockingly at Jax; neither one had been aware of his presence.
“What truth?” Jax asks.
Fuchsia shoots Sina an evil glare. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Sina shrugs. “Because I agree with Bren! The truth needs to be told.”
Fuchsia grabs her pink hair and sounds like she let out an inhuman growl, throwing herself dramatically into a nearby seat. Bren looks at Jax and sits down. They all sit quietly waiting for Fuchsia to speak again.
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