Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 456. Secret Missions

When Ethan brought food, I motioned for him to stay silent, as the two, one little and one big, were sleeping.

Not saying who was who.

"Thanks," I whispered, and he nodded, placing trays on each side of our beds.

Slowly, I began to feel a bit embarrassed by his constant and seamless service and cleared my throat.

"Ethan... if you need something, you can say it... alright?"

He had just expertly balanced three trays, having already put two down, when he looked up.

Ethan chuckled.

"I will remember to tell you, Mr. Howard. Thank you."

"...Just call me Kenny." Finally, I noticed that we had still remained in this weird client-attorney setting that seemed to force him to speak to me with ’Mister’ and such.

Though he was Henry’s attorney as well and called him by his first name.

Ethan seemed surprised himself, as if he hadn’t purposefully addressed me that way. Then his eyes flittered to the sleeping Henry for a moment before he answered much more quietly.

"Alright... Kenny."

Henry flinched in his sleep, startling us both, and only because of Ethan’s reflexes did the water glass on the remaining tray he held not fall.

We both froze until I chuckled, having to suppress the urge to flick Henry’s head hard. So jealous even in his sleep.

Cute.

Ethan came by again, putting the last tray down when I apologetically asked him for another errand—getting me a pair of scissors.

He brought one before leaving again, like the first-class butler he had turned into.

Though I became super hungry smelling the food, I first slowly and carefully cut out the drawing before placing it into the medallion, under the little plastic ’lid’ that would hold it in place even if the medallion was open.

When I was finished, I looked to my side before I looked down at the little koala holding onto me, both dead asleep.

"Pfft... Ren, wake up." I stroked over his back, thinking that at least he should eat after crying so much.

The last time I had seen him so upset was when we fought in the space...

And Henry looked like he needed sleep more urgently than something to eat, so only one was awakened by me.

Ren raised his body and looked at me dazedly with a wet and red face, his expression instantly crumpling up again, ready for another round of crying.

"Look." I hastily presented the necklace in front of him, and he stared at it, his eyes filling with tears nevertheless.

"Open it." I took his hand and placed it inside.

The kid slowly fiddled with the golden vintage medallion before managing to figure it out; the medallion sprung open, and his face froze, looking in wonder at the miniature version of the drawing.

Seeing him so amazed, I discreetly put the smudged drawing under the stack of papers on my lap.

The operation behind his back was successful, and I added,

"The angel sometimes changes form; now it’s small enough to fit into the medallion. Look, even when you have it on your body, it won’t smudge again." I put the necklace over his head—it was a close fit without needing to open it.

The kid beamed, bouncing back way too quickly from drooping to being ecstatic—which was very practical.

Maybe kids are just so damn much more resilient than everybody else.

"Alright?" I poked the necklace and saw Ren looking at Henry, more specifically his neck, where the collar sat, like always.

"Yup, just like Henry." I chuckled and saw the kid raising his arms as if he had won a prize or something.

I patted his head.

"If Henry doesn’t wake up by the time we have eaten, we’ll snatch his portion as well. What are you saying?"

The kid covered his mouth, a sneaky gleam in his eyes.

I wouldn’t give the puppy’s food away, but I was still a bit annoyed that he hadn’t woken me up, sneaking out again by himself.

Though this time, he acted way more level-headed—besides randomly shooting my father’s shin while they ran... from the fire he had caused... ahahahah.

Anyway... it would get cold and would end as a leftover if he didn’t wake up soon; besides, I had a feeling that he would be happier if I personally cooked him something after he woke up.

The kid crawled down from my body and sat on the edge of the mattress, placing the tray on his lap while I sat further up and crossed my legs to eat as well.

It was meat with potatoes and vegetables, which was now my accustomed reward after having overexercised myself.

"Na-ah." When I saw the kid expertly picking out his most hated vegetable to transport it to the edge of the plate, I made a noise to stop him while suppressing a fit of laughter.

How can he be such a cliché? I can’t get over it.

Though... I am carrying quite a few cliché traits myself.

The thought stopped my laughter, and I burrowed my head in the food, feeling like throwing stones while sitting in my very cozy glasshouse.

The kid also ate, unhappily dipping the broccoli in a bunch of sauce before forcing himself to chew mechanically.

"Why do you hate it so much?"

Ren looked at me and thought a bit, as if he were contemplating the reason himself.

"Pfft... you don’t have to think so hard. You don’t have to eat what you don’t like; bring it over." The kid nearly jumped with happiness, always so exaggerating, before he gave me what he didn’t want.

When we were finished eating, I felt only one-third stuffed, still far away from a food coma, and given that I soon had to go and start some questionable work together with Henry and Ethan, I really wanted a food coma now while I still had time.

"Is today Saturday or Sunday?" I asked Ren, having forgotten to look at the date on Henry’s phone and unable to see my phone.

Ren raised one finger—Saturday.

"You already know how to name days?" I asked in wonder, feeling the long-lost relief of having a day in between today and Monday.

Ren pursed his lips indignantly.

"Sorry, you have known them already?" I chuckled and saw Ren nod with his eyes closed as if it were a given.

I burst into laughter again and patted his head before putting my tray down and also putting Ren’s tray down as well.

"Are you full?"

Ren seemed stuffed and drowsy, but thinking of stealing Henry’s food, he jolted awake and shook his head while covering his mouth in excitement.

"Alright." I smirked and held a finger in front of my lips before sneaking with Ren around the mattress.

I had already been constantly monitoring Henry’s heartbeat and breathing because he had sneaked out to fight, shoot, and teleport after a day of standing still and being an angry puppy inside the warehouse, so I had to make sure that he was really alright.

And if he had sleep paralysis again or a nightmare, I would instantly notice.

Anyway, so although I knew he was asleep, with Ren and me moving slowly around the mattress, nearly in slow motion, I got nervous as if he would wake up any moment and—I don’t know—yell ’BOOH!’ or something, giving me a heart attack on the go.

So while the kid suppressed his laughter and I did as well, tiptoeing along to the tray, I felt awfully excited.

I motioned for the kid to watch Henry before bending down for his tray, then picked it up in absolute slow motion again before suppressing the urge to run back to our side.

We tiptoed back, and when we were seated, my heart was slamming in my chest.

"Bahahahhaha!!!" I couldn’t hold back again, and the kid laughed silently with me.

Henry didn’t wake up, so his food was stolen and ingested, mostly by me, and I finally ended up in the intended food coma.

The kid helped me bring the trays out again, and we somehow moved as slowly as before on a very important, very secretive mission.

In the kitchen, we found my grandmother, who eyed us hatefully, not speaking until we had set the trays on the kitchen counter at an excruciatingly slow speed.

"What is this?" She eventually pointed at something behind the kitchen counter, and I bent over to confirm that the large body I heard breathing loudly was indeed Kitty.

"Kitty?" I responded, and she jumped up and steered the tiger’s head that was turned away up, showing us his pink snout.

...

"What did you do to her? Is that lipstick?" She asked before deepening her voice,

"Did you put makeup on my pet???"

"..."

"He ate my vomited blood. These are probably the remains of it." Apparently, nobody had broken the news to her.

Kitty timely licked his pink snout, and there was a moment of frozen stillness.

I never saw my grandmother move so fast as she did the next moment, letting go of the tiger’s head and looking at him with disgust and admonishment.

"What has become of you?" she asked accusingly, and Kitty sadly lowered his head back on his paws, letting go of a long, pitiful breath.

I laughed and watched the old dragon go to the kitchen sink before stopping; disgusted, she went to another bathroom to wash her hands for a long time.

While she was away, I inspected the fridge with Ren, looking for something sweet, already sure that she wasn’t waiting in the kitchen just to ask about Kitty’s unique new style.

We found two packaged chocolate puddings, and I lifted Ren onto the kitchen counter so that he could eat while sitting, while I leaned against it, doing the same.

In the end, my grandmother came back, looking at Ren’s ’seat’ but not saying anything in the end.

I knew it!!! If I sat on the counter, she would give me an earful.

"How are you?" she asked me.

"Fine, you?" I answered, stuffing a spoonful of pudding into my mouth.

She pressed her lips into a thin line.

"Also fine..."

Silence.

"Did you have a good meal? A good sleep?" she probed again, and I broke out in goosebumps at the sudden concern.

"Yes...?"

Silence.

"Then let’s go on a walk," she suddenly said, her eyes darting away from me.

"... With you?" I asked her.

She looked a bit unhappy with my question but didn’t say anything.

"Why?" I asked with confusion.

What’s with suddenly luring me into the wilderness? What the fuck did she want to do to me?

"You can’t even accompany your grandmother on a walk? Are you even human?"

The last question felt a bit familiar.

"Can we do that tomorrow?" I asked her while hugging myself to find security.

"...Good." She walked away but stopped in the doorway and turned back.

"You aren’t a convict anymore. Congratulations." She harrumphed at the end as if it was a habit.

I relaxed my arms and looked at the pudding.

"I know. Thank you," I said earnestly before grinning happily.

She just waved me off, leaving heartlessly as if she had better things to do.

After pudding, Ren and I went back to bed, and while I held Henry’s hand under the blanket and Ren curled onto my arm, we instantly fell asleep, and I was still worrying about what the old dragon wanted to bring me outside for.

*******

When I woke up again, I instinctively grabbed the spot beside me because I didn’t feel Henry holding onto me like always.

The side to my right was empty and cold... and I was instantly awake.

Sitting up, panicking for a second about him having sneaked out again without me, I saw Henry sitting on the floor not far away... on the ground.

I didn’t really register what I was seeing for a few seconds before I recognized that in front of Henry was our closet, which, instead of standing with its back against the wall, was now lying on the floor, like a makeshift table.

Henry sat with his back against the wall, his hands propped on the closet door, his expression blank and somehow businesslike.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"Are you..." I lifted my body, suppressing the nonsensical words coming to my mind—’breaking up with me?’

In every possible sense, this dumb question just showed that I was still half asleep. I nearly wanted to slap myself.

"Did you sleep well? How are you feeling?" He motioned me to the pillow on the ground across from him.

"Creeped out," I said, feeling familiar with the set of questions that came out of nowhere, letting myself fall on the intended seat.

We were alone in the room, and it seemed to be early in the morning, still a bit dark outside.

"Don’t be." Henry smiled very unsettlingly, absolutely not puppy-like ...

More like a wolf.

There was about one and a half meters between us because of the length of the closet; the height of this makeshift table was high enough that it reached my elbows—showing how much depth it had.

I furrowed my eyebrows, thinking that he surely had chosen to be this distant from me on purpose.

Henry had his hands clasped together, gathering himself for a moment before he said,

"I wanted to do this after we relaxed together for some time... but I fell asleep." He sighed with annoyance.

"Hurry the heck up; I’m getting paranoid," I said, wanting to lean back, but there was nothing to lean on.

Henry took a deep breath and unclasped his hands, reaching down to his side, behind the closet.

"I want to negotiate; at the same time, for this talk, I am using up all the promises you made to me—about how you would not beat me and that you would hear me out first."

I probably would have really spiraled down into a paranoid fit if I hadn’t spotted the slight tremble and the nervousness all over him, as well as the infatuated look he gave me.

He leaned over and placed a black box in front of me—about the length and thickness of my forearm and just as wide as my hand.

I raised my eyebrows, not opening it but staring at Henry.

"Seven days from now." He said, not daring to look at me but eventually meeting my eyes anyway.

"Let’s do it." He announced solemnly and reached over yet again, this time to open the box for me.

I took a long, very long look at what I had been presented with before glancing up again.

"Do you want to die?"