***Dimitri’s POV***

I went back into the house after watching Theo’s car disappear. I calmly made my way back upstairs and into my bedroom, sitting at my desk.

I grabbed a blank sheet of paper and began to sketch Theo’s face, his expression clear in my mind. That terror and embarrassment in his eyes. I wanted to draw that, loving how expressive his eyes were.

The drawing played out under my fingers, seeming to magically appear. It was a fairly rough sketch of his face, but I could fix that later. I just wanted to focus on his eyes and-

My heart gave a little start as my chair was suddenly pulled backwards. I spilled out onto the floor painfully and blinked up at a furious Alek.

She grabbed my drawing off of my desk. “You are a fucking faggot. You’re a freak. This isn’t even normal, drawing Theo’s face like this,” she hissed, tearing the drawing into little pieces and sprinkling them over me.

“And that was looking like it was going to be such a good drawing,” I said with a sigh, looking at the torn pieces scattered on me and the floor.

She kicked me in the side and I winced. I had to fight back laughter, knowing that it would only make the situation worse for me. Oh, a jealous female could be quite a terrifying thing.

“How could you do that to me Dimitri?” she cried furiously, gripping my shirt and getting in my face.

“In case you forgot, Aleksandra, you’re the one who pretends we’re not even related. So pardon me if I don’t feel a brotherly duty to take your feelings into consideration where my own love life is concerned,” I said, unfazed by the dirty look she was giving me. Ah, if only looks could kill.

“This is the side of you no one else ever seems to see! You’re selfish and feelings mean nothing to you!” she snapped, slapping me.

“If feelings meant nothing to me, I wouldn’t be dating little Theodore. I told you he didn’t hate me,” I said, unable to help my laughter.

Alek slapped me again, rather hard this time. I mentally sighed as I heard Galen padding down the hallway towards my bedroom, drawn by the sound.

“I could just strangle you,” she snarled.

“Why does everyone keep saying that to me lately? Honestly, you people need new threats,” I said with a sigh. So unoriginal. I enjoyed creative threats!

Alek slammed my body against the floor. “How long?” she demanded.

“Not very long. I believe I asked him out the day he found out we were related. Though we had kissed before that,” I said, smirking at the memories.

Alek punched me, hard, right in the jaw. I heard a terrified gasp from my doorway and didn’t have to turn to know it was Galen.

“Daddy!” he wailed. “Daddy! She’s hurting Dimmy!”

Alek shot a furious glare at Galen as we heard our parents hurrying upstairs. She turned to me and punched me again, furiously. Apparently it made her feel better, because she continued to do it, again and again.

“ALEKSANDRA!”

I felt her being pulled off of me, and then a gentle hand on my shoulder. I glanced up at my mother’s concerned face.

“Dimmy, are you okay?” she asked.

I looked over and saw that my dad was dragging Alek out of the room. Galen hurried over and knelt next to me, gripping my arm.

“She found out,” I said, turning my gaze back to my mom and chuckling. “Now, if only people could learn how to knock, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

Mom helped me up and sat me down on my bed. She inspected my face and I mentally sighed. I just hoped that my sister didn’t ruin my fabulous face. It was bad enough when Kayden broke my nose. My poor nose was forever doomed to be crooked now!

“Mommy, is he okay?” Galen whimpered.

“I’ll be quite alright,” I assured, ruffling his hair.

We could hear screaming coming from Alek’s room, both her and my father. I sighed and rubbed my aching jaw.

“I don’t understand why she’s so upset,” I said, shaking my head.

“I told you she would be. She liked Theo, Dimitri. She was telling me the other night how much she liked him. She wanted to ask him out,” mom said, pulling my hand away and inspecting my jaw. “That’s a nasty bruise.”

“Well, little Theodore doesn’t like her back. She’ll get over him,” I said, waving my hand dismissively.

A door slammed, and then my dad was walking into my bedroom. He came over to me and searched my face, his face red from yelling.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “What exactly happened?”

“I’m fine. And she caught me and my little Theodore having a personal moment. I’ll say it again: People need to learn to knock.” I reached up to rub my jaw again, but my mom smacked my hand again.

“Stop that. You’re going to make it worse. Don’t touch it,” she said sternly.

Galen crawled into my lap, wrapping his arms around my neck. He very gently kissed my jaw, where I could feel a bruise forming.

“She won’t hurt you again Dimmy. I promise,” he said.

“My little hero,” I said, putting an arm around him so that he wouldn’t go tumbling off of my lap.

“He’s right, though. She won’t hurt you again Dimitri. But don’t you dare go running your mouth and encourage her to attack you again. Avoid her until she calms down,” dad said.

“Like I would ever provoke my darling sister,” I said with a charming smile.

“I mean it Dimitri. Don’t you dare piss her off,” he said flatly. “Because if you do, you know she’ll beat the shit right out of you.”

“That’s enough!” my mom snapped, gesturing at Galen. “Dimitri gets it. Right Dimitri?”

“Yes, yes. I get it. What I don’t get is where my cat goes,” I said, looking around the room for any sign of Hugo. I was bored of my parents’ overprotective habits.

“Your lack of concern for yourself worries me,” dad grumbled, stomping out of my room.

“Is everyone in this house throwing a temper tantrum?” I asked, watching him leave.

“Dimitri, let me remind you that after Kayden beat you to the point where you were nearly unconscious, you were still trying to make a joke out of it,” mom said, pulling Galen off of my lap and into her arms. “Now go to bed.”

I smirked at her and tugged my shirt off, falling back on my bed. Galen was staring at me, his eyes shining with concern.

“I hope you’re okay Dimmy,” he said. “Goodnight. I love you.”

“Love you too dear,” I said, wiggling my fingers at him as my mother carried him out of my bedroom.

I rolled over, and raised an eyebrow. Hugo licked my face with his rough tongue, having magically appeared next to me.

“You were probably laughing at me, you traitor,” I said, sniffing dramatically as I stroked his fur.

“Meow.”

“Ah, so you admit it. We’re not friends anymore, Hugo.”

“Meow.”

“Alright, alright. You’ve persuaded me. We can be friends again.”

I rolled onto my back, letting Hugo crawl into his usual spot on my chest. I let my eyes shut, falling asleep.

***

“What the hell happened to your face?” Kim asked, staring at me in shock.

“Your words cause me pain,” I said, slapping a hand over my chest. “There is nothing wrong with my face, Kimberly darling!”

“Dimitri, that is the nastiest bruise I’ve ever freaking scene,” she said, pointing to the one on my jaw. “And you have a really nasty one at the corner of your eye, and a fairly bad one on your cheek. What happened?”

“Why, my secret relationship was discovered,” I said, smirking.

“I don’t understand. The rest of your family is so cool, and then there’s your sister,” Kim grumbled. “Did you at least hit her back, or try to fight her off?”

“Kimberly darling, you know I don’t like violence,” I said, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

“You need to at least protect yourself Dimitri!” she said.

“Why? I have my lovely best friend to do that,” I said.

Kim blushed. “I only kicked those guys in the nuts because they were trying to break your friggin’ arms off Dimitri.”

The bell rang and we went off to class together. When my first study hall rolled around, I strut into the room a few minutes late. I immediately noticed that Alek was sitting back at her old table, instead of with Theo. Theo was talking to Thalia, grinning and looking smug.

“Thalia my dear, are we tutoring today?” I asked, going over to her.

“Yes we ar- oh my god!” Her eyes widened as they landed on my face.

Theo looked up and his face paled. His eyes shot to Alek before returning to my face. I had to fight back a laugh at his concerned expression.

“What happened to you?” Thalia asked.

“An unfortunate incident,” I said, lightly brushing my fingers along the bruise on my jaw.

“That, ah, that looks like it really hurt,” Theo said, trying to sound unconcerned.

“Not at all. Now, beautiful Thalia, will we be tutoring?” I asked.

Thalia blushed as I called her beautiful. “Yes. I mean, if you’re free to tutor,” she said.

“Of course I’m free,” I said brightly. “It’ll be a wonderful time. Now, I have to go to the locker room to retrieve something. I’ll see you in a little.”

I left the cafeteria and went down to the locker room. I leaned against the wall, waiting three minutes until Theo opened the door and entered, following me like I knew he would.

“God dammit Dimitri,” he said, coming over to me and gently running his fingers on my bruises.

I reached up and caught his wrist. “It’s nothing,” I assured.

“Dimitri, your sister kicked your ass,” he said.

“Actually, she kicked my ribs.” I tugged my shirt up so he could see the bruise. “See? Her foot never made contact with my ass.”

He pulled my shirt down, rolling his eyes. “Still. I feel bad.”

“It’s alright. My wonderful Galen was there to kiss the pain away,” I said. “Though, I’m sure you could do an even better job.”

I pulled him close and kissed him, starting it gently and increasing the passion. Theo’s hands tangled in my hair, pulling me closer. I could feel the desire flowing through him as he pressed his body against mine.

I broke the kiss off before we could get too intense, though. If someone were to walk in and catch us, it would make Theo even more afraid of the relationship.

It was strange. I had never been afraid of losing anyone before. But the thought of losing Theo for any reason terrified me. If too many people found out about our relationship before he was ready, I was afraid he would leave me. And I just didn’t want that.

Attraction was a strange, strange thing. But I never fought against my feelings. So I would embrace the strong feelings I had for Theo.

“Are you sure you’re okay? That looks painful,” he said, his eyes trained on the bruise on my jaw.

“It’s fine,” I said, pulling him into my arms and holding him.

Theo was shorter than me, and he folded against my body perfectly. My chin rested on top of his head, his face pressed against my neck. His warm breath on my neck nearly made me shiver, and I grinned as I remembered that he had my favorite scarf. How fitting.

I glanced down, looking into his wet green eyes. I could see hi strong feelings for me, potent in his gaze. But Theo wasn’t the kind of person who would just out and say his feelings.

“You called Thalia beautiful,” he mumbled.

“Little Theodore, don’t be jealous. She is beautiful,” I said, chuckling. “A beautiful girl with a beautiful name. I’m an artist. I find the beauty and flaws in everything I see. So I can appreciate her physical and emotional beauty. But that doesn’t mean I have feelings for her. I have feelings for you, my jealous little Theodore.”

“Do you want your scarf back?” he asked, not wanting to admit his jealousy.

“No, you can keep it for now. If I want it back, I’ll let you know,” I said, kissing his temple.

“Let’s go out to dinner again afterschool tomorrow,” he said, his head dropping onto my shoulder.

“Sure,” I said, loving simple dates. There was something so alluring about simplicity. Sitting with your significant other and simply talking or enjoying each other’s company.

“Maybe after, we can go back to your house and watch Tarzan again,” he suggested, grinning a little.

“Tarzan is the best movie ever!” I said and mentally hit myself as my voice came out low and thick with my accent. Ah, so my little Theodore had bested me once again via Tarzan. “Now that’s just not nice, little Theodore. Using my love of Tarzan against me, just to hear my accent,” I said, this time speaking without my accent.

His grin got wider. “You’ll keep falling for it, and you know it.”

“Probably,” I said with a sigh. “I just have an unnatural love for Tarzan. I do hope you realized that you’ll forever come second to that movie when it comes to my affections.”

“That makes me feel pathetic.”

“It shouldn’t. The fact that I rank you up there with Tarzan should make you feel as fabulous as you are, darling,” I said, kissing him. I just loved the feel of my lips against his.

“I should get back before they suspect anything,” he said, pulling out of my arms. “I’ll see you later, Dimitri.”

I watched him walk out of the locker. I leaned against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest and smirking at the powerful emotion running through me.

Love.

Yes, I had fallen in love with my little Theodore. And I could tell by the look in his eyes that he had fallen in love with me too.

And it was about time that we admitted that love for each other.