Nine years old Elias’s POV
"Hi my name is No-Noah" the crying boy says.
His face is pink. He must have been under the sun for so long and he has been crying for too long.
Mucus streams from his nose like when baby Kai cries.
"Get lost" I tell him, turning the other way with my book.
The boy doesn’t get lost. He stays there, sniffling and holding something in his hand. It looks pink.
"I said get lost" I repeat myself.
I came to this place to read by myself. Damien won’t stop making fart jokes, Kai won’t stop crying, and my parents are busy.
"I don’t know where to go...the angel statue scares me" he says, wiping the back of his hand over his nose and making a mess.
He’s like a baby.
"The angel isn’t scary"
"It is. I like people, when people can smile and be real, and play, and like pink...that stone angel is scary" the boy says, sitting on the edge of my bench.
"I don’t want you here" I snap.
Mom says I should stop talking like this, that people won’t like me. I don’t like people either, people are mean. Watches and stones are better.
"I want to be here, please, I’ll wait till they find me" he whispers.
The present
Elias’s POV
I blink out of it.
My cherry blossom boy memory never comes to me unless I bring it back. It’s clashing with the vivid memory of the basement, making me sweat under my clothes.
"Turn up the A.C" I say, leaning back and gripping the edge of my seat.
Wordlessly, the driver obeys me. He can’t speak. I cut his tongue off three years ago after he insulted Kai.
One. Two. Three...
The omega I thought would be the Noah I’m looking for is sitting next to me, his arms are crossed over his chest. He’s sticking to the side of the car and his eyes are on the headrest of the driver’s seat.
He can’t be my cherry blossom. That boy was simple-minded, this one is stone. Proud, stubborn, yet, easy to break.
I want to prode and poke him some more. But I won’t do that in this state. Not while my head is stuck in a room that’s underneath an old house.
"So..." Lucas starts.
My bodyguard cranes his neck. He is trying to look at me and I refuse to look at him.
"...who put on the radio?" he asks with one crooked finger pointing at the radio that’s still playing that pop song.
It’s grating my nerves.
It’s obnoxiously bright and is perfectly annoying, but I don’t attempt to put it off yet.
"Noah? Elias? I guess we’re all getting silent treatment" Lucas shrugs and turns his attention forward. Humming along to the song and thumping his foot to the beat.
In less than thirty minutes, the car stops at my home.
I get out first, one hand in my pocket as I open the door for Noah. The omega throws a glare at me before he opens his own side of the door.
"I don’t need your help" he hisses at me.
He proceeds to slam the door shut. Give me one more glare. And then storm into the house.
The urge to grab him by the hair and slam his face into the window rises like heat in my chest. I take the first step forward but stop and lift my head.
I’m being watched.
My mother is staring at me from the balcony.
His long hair is down and his pale blue eyes are fixed on me.
"Go after Noah" I instruct Lucas without breaking eye contact with my mom.
Lucas follows my order immediately. He runs after Noah, only stopping at the door to tell at another guard about the shoes in the car.
I keep staring at my mother and he lifts his hand. Two fingers curl in a come hither gesture and he beckons for me to meet him.
The iciness of his eyes guide my steps into the house.
He knows where my head is.
No one stands in my way when I walk up the stairs, push past the doors, and finally, enter my mother’s room.
"Mom" I say.
"Come here" he opens his arms and I walk into his hug. His scent fills my scent as he deliberately releases his scent for me.
"Damien told me what you did. Eli, you’re are not there" he says softly.
"I know"
"You’re here in Gotteigen. You’re home and you’re safe. You hear me, you see your dad, you feel Damien and you touch Malachi"
"I know"
"There’s light everywhere..."
"I know"
"Noah is here too" he says and I don’t speak.
I don’t know.
"He has a lot to do with your spiraling, doesn’t he?" Mom asks and I don’t speak again.
"He’s the one who gave you the cherry blossom leaves, isn’t he? That was why you wanted him, is that right?"
"I might be wrong" I say.
"And you might be right" mom strokes the back of my head.
"I’m looking for answers, nothing is coming to me"
The bathroom door opens and my father steps out in a robe.
"Breaking over an omega, eh?" he asks and mom clicks his tongue, keeping my focus on him.
"Now...did my pocket watch forget how to observe? What happened to watching?" he asks and I pull away from the hug.
"I want to kill him. And I want to possess him. He confuses me" I summarize the thoughts in my head.
Odd...the world calls me odd, but my mother calls me his son.
"Don’t kill him, there’s only little you can learn after a thing is dead" he says and I nod.
"How do you feel, Eli?" he asks and I nod again.
"Goodnight, mom, goodnight dad" I say to them and leave their room.
It used to help when mom talks to me. He’s the only one I can trust to see me. Others see, but none of them understands like him.
I return to my room and find Noah curled up on my bed.
He lifts his head when I shut the door behind me and flick the lights off.
Even in the dark, his eyes track me. They follow my moments and stop when I take my seat. The comfortable couch in front of my bed. The one that gives me an overview of everything in my environment.
"Sleep" I tell him and he drops his head to the bed.
His shoulders rise and fall with each breath he takes. The post-heat scent is slowly disappearing. And his legs are pressed together.
"Come to bed, Elias" he says without lifting his head.
I don’t sleep with the lights off, but he does. I put it off because he sleeps better with the lights off.
"Sleep, Noah" I say.
The omega folds himself into a ball and sighs.
"I didn’t tell you earlier" he starts in a softer tone, and that metal cage around the organ pumping my blood loosens slightly, "thank you for my shoes" he completes his words.
I drop my back to my seat and stare at the ruby on the top of my shelf.
I waited three days for him to come out of his heat. I was going to get my answers out of him after the visit to Zane. But nothing has gone my way.
He made me forget my plans with his tears, but tomorrow...tomorrow I’ll get an answer from him.