#Zane casually having Very Insistent Gay Thoughts™ nbd

[huyaoxiaozi]

@feilien | PLOTTED STARTER.

       After Matt had disappeared through the window, Zane had simply finished packing his things—along with anything else stored there that could be important—and left the safe house for the last time. Of course he'd needed to designate it as compromised. The heir to the Black Dragon Clan knew about it, after all. Matt may have let Zane go, but he was clearly deepy suseptible to his clan's whims. Considering how bad it had ended up for him the last time he'd trusted Matt blindly, he wasn't about to make a mistake like that again.

       Regardless, after finally seeing him again after all this time, after gaining some certainty in whether or not Matt still felt anything for him ... Zane couldn't get the boy he still he'd once loved out of his head. All the various scenarios, all of the ways things could have ended, for better or worse, plagued his mind, and even his dreams. Matt's rich dark eyes haunted him and it was almost embarrassing how many times he found himself wondering what would've happened if he'd given into temptation. If he'd simply shoved Matt up against that wall again — but this time, to capture his lips with his own rather than pressing a blade to his throat.

       He thought of Matt's laybored breathing, his reactions at the slightest gestures, he thought of Matt's hands in Zane's hair, Matt's fingers curled into his jacket while he kissed like he was starving to death ...

       It would've resulted in getting gutted by those sharp blades of his, Zane often scolded himself. It was the possibility that he could be wrong that always brought the fantasy back with a vengeance.

       Zane kept a close watch on Matt now that he knew where he was and what he was doing. Most of the time, it was strictly business — but after catching just a glimpse of him training fucking shirtless once, he knew it could never be strictly business between them. When they were young, Matt had been skinnier; lean muscled and strong regardless, but at a glance, he'd always seemed a bit scrawny, until you looked closer.

       As an adult, he'd long since grown into his height, grew more muscle. He was still incredibly lean, but there was no chance you'd mistake him as scrawny anymore. Mercifully, he was thoroughly distracted by how that made him feel once he noticed the fresh wounds and bruises that adorned his bare skin, however.

       Zane knew battle wounds and, from what he could see, these were nothing like that. It looked as though Matt had simply let someone hurt him, over and over again — and, in a horrible flash, he thought, was this the consequences of letting him go? Of failing to neutralize the threat? Was he once again the reason for someone else's misery? Despite how hard he tried to convince himself that Matt's personal business was not his problem, he found himself climbing up to the roof of a building, his eyes keen as they swept over his surroundings ... until they settled on the back of a familiar figure.

Zane approached him cautiously, knowing full well that taking Matt by surprise could no doubt be lethal. He was still several feet away when he cleared his throat. ❝Still scaling rooftops, I see,❞ he rasped, his tone conveying a calm and casual demeanor that he very much did not feel.