Saving the Villain

Just as Maxen wanted, he and Luke carried Remo to Luke's place. Remo was a big guy, so Maxen and Luke had a bit of difficulty. Fortunately, although it didn't look like it, Maxen and Luke were stronger than they appeared.

After reaching Luke's place, since Luke had been harrumphing about his sensitivity to people touching his bed, they let Remo rest on the floor. Cosette only laid a thick blanket on the floor where they laid Remo, and then Maxen dressed Remo's injuries.

Now the three of them were just standing near Remo's body. Cosette had her arms folded under her chest. Luke's hands were resting on his hips, while Maxen had his hands shoved inside his pockets. Their eyes were fixed on the unconscious Remo for minutes now.

"Err… should we bring out some armor or shields to protect ourselves in case he wakes up breathing fire?" Cosette inquired, but sounded more like a suggestion, glancing at Luke and then Maxen. "We don't really know what he'd do once he wakes up."

"I'll kick him back to sleep before he breathes his fire," Luke announced with confidence, nodding in agreement at his suggestion. "If he wakes up again and tries to mess my place, I'll kick him until the next time he wakes up, he won't even have the energy to get up."

"Gosh… are you going to murder him?" she scrunched his nose up at him. "You're giving me the creeps."

Luke gazed back at her, dead in the eye. "Cozie, I should be the one saying that. Do you know how scared I was when you uppercut that guy? I saw his tooth fly out of his mouth!"

"He talked too much shit, so he deserved that."

"Well, true." Luke nodded. "It was satisfying when he finally shut up. I thought if he didn't stop talking, I'll feed him my shoes."

"You should've stepped on shit first and then kicked him in the face," she giggled, but her suggestion was taken seriously.

"Shit… that's disgusting, but I should've done that." Luke let out a deep exhale as if he just missed a good opportunity. "God! I don't have money to buy a spare shoe!"

"I'll buy you one." She poked his side mildly with a mischievous grin. "Once we see them again, do that. Don't worry about your shoes."

"Really?" he arched a brow and narrowed his eyes. "You'll buy me one?"

"Of course!"

"I'll choose, okay?"

Cosette scrunched her nose up in dismay but still agreed. "Ever heard beggars cannot be picky, but deal."

"Heh." A triumphant grin turned up on his face before his brows rose. Noticing his shift in attention, Cosette looked in Maxen's direction.

Maxen had been silent, which shouldn't be odd since he learned how to treasure his words. Not that his lack of conversational contribution bothered Cosette and Luke, since Maxen was a lot talkative with Cosette privately. He was also like that with Luke.

However, what the two found odd was Maxen's request to bring Remo to Luke's apartment. His eyes never left Remo while deep in his own thoughts.

"By the way, why did he bring this guy here?" Luke leaned to Cosette's side and whispered. "I mean, wasn't he Max's bully back then? Is this what you call Stockholm syndrome?"

Cosette glared at him. "He should have got a good reason for it." She clicked her tongue in irritation, rolling her eyes at Luke.

"Hey, Max. What are we going to do with this guy's body —" Luke nearly bit his tongue as he received a blow on his side from Cosette's elbow.

"Don't make it sound like we're about to hide a dead body," she stressed, shaking her head in disappointment. "Max, why did we bring him here? Although Luke is a dummy, his suggestion to bring him to the hospital is better."

"No one will watch over him if we did." Maxen kept his eyes on Remo while answering. "Remo is a tough guy, and even if he is outnumbered, those guys won't do this much damage to him."

"You mean…?" Cosette quirked a brow slowly.

"He didn't fight back?" Luke's question was more direct than her, furrowing his brows. "That's odd. Is he staying out of trouble or something?"

"Could be." This time, Maxen cast the two of them a look. "He had been staying out of trouble in school too. Back then, he punched a teacher when he scolded him, but now, he is more tamed."

"He's probably still on probation, that's why." Cosette rocked her head, as she also thought Remo was staying out of trouble. After all, she asked a few delinquents in school to beat him up — not literally. But she told the delinquents to relay the news of Cosette bribing the delinquents in their school to beat him up.

But alas, Remo just laughed it off and did nothing to teach her a lesson. Initially, Cosette thought it was because Remo was arrogant. She assumed he probably found it 'cute' rather than insulting because Remo was obviously a huge guy and the other delinquents in their school would just end up as his punching bags.

Now, after seeing Remo get beaten up, Cosette's assumptions were slowly changing. It was odd, indeed. There might be a deeper reason Remo was staying out of trouble, even when trouble comes at him voluntarily.

'Does it have anything to do with Maxen and the SIN organization?' Cosette glanced at Maxen's side profile, and the solemnness in his eyes was enough to give her an answer. 'He probably wants to know that as well.'

"He probably realized that being a delinquent will not benefit him." Luke held his hands behind his head, eyes on the guy lying on the floor. "Being in prison is like a free trial before hell. Almost everyone there are the bad guys who committed crimes."

A deep exhale escaped Luke's nostrils while shaking his head. "Anyway, I'm hungry. Max, should we buy something outside? There's a new food stall that opened nearby."

"Let's order something for tonight," Maxen replied as he slowly faced them. "Those guys… will surely come back for revenge. Let's stay out of trouble for now."

Cosette and Luke frowned while looking back at Maxen. Of course, they knew that, but they just didn't voice it out because it was the problem — the consequences of not being able to hold back their temper. Yet, deep in their hearts, they didn't regret this trouble.

Those delinquents got what they deserved, and Cosette wasn't done with them just yet. She already pledged to get that female student justice.

"Then, let's order." Luke rocked his head, waltzing to the bean bag near Remo.

"What do you guys want?" he asked as he took out his phone, volunteering to make the order instead of asking Max to do it himself.

"I want some beef!" Cosette raised a hand. "Lots of it, please!"

Luke cast her a judgemental look from head to toe. "How can you not gain any weight if you're practically a glutton?"

"Hah! You got no idea of what I do to fight weight gain." Cosette rolled her eyes, dragging her feet to the other bean bag beside Luke, and tossed herself on it. "It's so hard I need to eat to have the strength to fight it."

"Like eating more?" he looked at her incredulously, before snapping his eyes up at Maxen. "What about you, Max? What do you want?"

"Anything that's available."

"There he goes again," mumbled Luke, looking back at Cosette with a dead expression. "Beef for him too?"

"He just had beef. He needs chicken and vegetables."

"For?"

"For a balanced diet."

"..." Luke narrowed his eyes at her and said, "are you sabotaging me?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you so concerned about Max's diet while you don't even care about mine?"

"Are you the boyfriend?" she asked grumpily, and that was how she shut him up. "See? Max will kill himself if he weighs himself and gained a kilo. I don't have the heart to watch him practically live in the gym."

Luke's expression grew uglier, looking up as he pondered. His eyes then instinctively veered to Maxen and caught the latter walking towards the fridge to get a glass of water.

'Well, Max used to be chubby,' Luke thought, thinking he used to call Maxen names about his weight and Luke didn't even want to recall that phase in his life. He would get goosebumps whenever he does, and also felt guilty because Maxen was actually a nice guy.

If the same thing happened to Luke, he wouldn't forgive him for sure. But Maxen still befriended him even when they started on the wrong foot.

"Two beefs and one bland chicken then," Luke muttered, raising his brows briefly as he made an order for their food. When he finished, he glanced to his side.

Maxen was already standing in front of Cosette, giving her a glass of water which she accepted with a smile. But just before Luke could frown, bottled water came flying in his direction.

"I was about to get jealous," Luke commented as he opened the bottle of water to hydrate himself.

Meanwhile, Cosette just rolled her eyes before smiling sweetly at Maxen. "Should I call my dad and sleep here?" she asked him, almost making Luke spit the water out.

"What?" her brows rose. "I mean, we can't just leave Luke all alone with that guy, and I don't want to go home myself."

Maxen watched how the corner of her lips curled down, batting her eyelashes as she cast him a puppy look.

"We need to ask him first." He tipped his head in Luke's direction before both of them turned their attention to Luke. "Should we stay for the night?"

Luke gasped in disbelief, darting his eyes between the two. He was about to yell, "no!" when he realized there was Remo practically sleeping in his place.

"Don't make out here!" he warned, pointing a finger at the two of them. "My place will stay rated-pg 13!"

"Fine…"

"Oy, Cosette! What's with that tone?" Luke gasped once again, in utter disbelief at the tinge of disappointment in her tone. But Cosette ignored him while Maxen sat down on the beanbag next to hers.

With that being said, Maxen and Cosette decided to stay over and just told Conrad about it. Cosette's father wouldn't agree so easily, but after getting a message from Max, he did.