CHAPTER 401: R.I.P.

When Lane and Nyla left the room some time later, after briefly discussing a few more issues, mainly Ethan’s reports, Clara was still in the apartment, waiting for them.

"M-miss Nyla!" she called out, jumping from her seat as soon as she saw them. "I, I didn’t mean... What I said earlier... It was just a joke..."

"Is that so?" Nyla raised her brows, not convinced. "It didn’t sound like a joke to me."

"It, it was! We... bicker with each other like that all the time, but it’s all fun and games! Isn’t that right... Lane?" Clara turned to Lane, giving him a pleading look he would have never expected she was even capable of pulling off, let alone directing it at him!

"Hmm..." Lane tilted his head, thinking for a moment, struggling against the corners of his lips that were fighting to go up. It was quite funny seeing Clara like that, trying to explain herself so frantically...

Should he go along with it? If he did, he would be able to hold it over Clara’s head and she would have no choice but to stay out of his way, at least for a while...

But then again, why would he? Personally, Lane didn’t mind arguing with her. And since it had no actual effect on his relationship with Damien - no matter how Clara criticized him, Damien still liked him all the same - it wasn’t that big of a problem. It could just get annoying at times, that’s all, but at this point, Lane would find Clara’s presence annoying even if she kept her mouth shut, so...

He put on a serious expression. "That... was supposed to be a joke? I thought you were being serious. You were always like that, picking up on me for whatever reason you could find, and encouraging Damien to break up with me..."

All the hope and expectant pleading slowly vanished from Clara’s face, replaced by probably the dullest expression Lade had ever seen the woman make.

Nyla only gave her a long look, not saying anything, before turning to Lane. "I’ll be going now. Stay safe."

"Mn. You too," Lane nodded at her.

After that, Nyla bid goodbye to Damien, Eloise and Samantha, ignoring Clara, and left.

"You should also go," Lane said to Clara as soon as the door closed behind his sister, not even trying to suppress his smile any longer. He felt extremely proud of himself...

It was just satisfying to do. To be able to get in between Clara and her crush (POTENTIAL crush! It was still just a guess that had yet to be truly confirmed, and could be wrong. There was a chance that Clara was just admiring Nyla... absolutely platonically), and also give Nyla a bad impression of the woman, thus lessening the chances that Clara would ever be able to get close to his sister...

Clara looked up at Lane, staring at him for a while...Seeing this, Eloise grabbed her by the shoulders, pushing her towards the door. "We’ll be going then! Thanks for having us! Have a good night!"

It was all to avoid any further conflicts... Even though it was not actually necessary. Clara had no intention of arguing, at least not for now. Even she understood that she couldn’t blame Lane for what had happened... She was the one who messed up, and Lane had no reason to cover up for her.

The sisters left, and Damien and Lane were finally left alone. Lane let out a relieved sigh, and plopped down on the couch, reaching for his phone. He reopened the page he had been looking at earlier to browse through the ring designs. It felt even more important now to tie the knot. After all, if he and Damien got married, Nyla and Clara would be a family, kind of... Surely, Clara wouldn’t dare to try to flirt with her brother’s sister-in-law, right?

He couldn’t focus on the rings, though, as his conversation with Nyla was still fresh in his mind. The International Awakened Summit was going to be held in the Capital in less than four months... It was still not public knowledge, but... Did Damien know?

He tossed his phone to the side once again and stood up, following Damien to the master bedroom, where the man had gone not long ago. "Hey, Damien? Have you heard anything about..." He paused mid-sentence, tilting his head and blinking. "What are you doing?"

Damien lifted his head, throwing Lane a glance, before going back to his work. "Cleaning," he plainly explained.

Well, that much was obvious just from looking. Even Lane could tell that much, even though he himself had never done much cleaning, aside from things like wiping a drink that he spilled and so on. But the real question was...

"Why?"

"What do you mean ’why’?" Damien furrowed his brows. "Am I supposed to just leave it like that?"

"Well... yeah? Why not?" Lane shrugged his shoulders. "We have to replace the mattress anyway... So we might as well get someone to fix it all as well?"

Damien didn’t answer. He was already kind of used to Lane’s attitude towards chores... But he insisted on doing things his own way. Even if the mattress had to be replaced, that was no reason to leave the cleaning to someone else! Especially not cleaning after sex! So, he just continued examining duvet covers. They were covered in stains, but they didn’t seem to be torn anywhere... They should be fine to use with a solid wash with a stain remover. And luckily, the stains didn’t bleed through to the duvet...

Lane watched Damien for a moment, before letting out a sigh. Then, he walked over to the bed in a few big strides, and tugged on the bedsheets...

RIIIIP!

A loud ripping noise filled the room, causing Damien to look up from the duvets once again. Lane was standing next to the bed, holding one of the edges of the bedsheets in his hand...

The bedsheets, which now had a long rip going right through the middle.

"...Ooops?" Lane put on an apologetic expression.

Now it was Damien’s turn to sigh. He wasn’t angry at Lane, not really. Firstly, because he couldn’t ever get angry at Lane, not really. Secondly, because it seemed to have been an accident. It looked like Lane attempted to take the sheets off the bed to help out, but he pulled too hard, resulting in it ripping. And finally...

The sheets had already been unsalvageable to begin with. Even if Damien attempted to stitch them up, with how badly they were torn, they would no longer be comfortable to sleep on. It would have been fine if it were just for Damien, but since Lane also slept in the same bed as he did...

"Don’t worry about it," he said, as he put the duvets aside and reached out to strip the pillows. "We have to throw the bedsheets away, anyway."

"Ah, so it doesn’t matter that I tore them?" Lane’s face brightened.

Damien shook his head in response. "No, it doesn’t."

He leaned down to pick up the pillow, which had fallen on the floor. When...

RIIIP!

The ripping sounded once again, forcing Damien to look up again. Lane was still standing by the bed, now holding the sheets in both of his hands... The sheets which had another massive tear on them, even bigger than before. Meanwhile, Lane wore another apologetic smile on his face.

"Oops... Sorry!"

He didn’t look sorry at all.

The first time might have been an accident, but the second...

Damien let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head.

Did he get himself a boyfriend or a cat?!