"Excellent." Leonard looked around and then headed for the fire exit, quickly disabling the alarm and holding the door open for Axel. He followed behind him and headed up the stairs outside the building, opening the door back inside. "They're renovating this floor. Some shops are already started, cameras ain't set up yet. The exit we took is a blind spot." Leonard did his research.
"How about you play for a while and I go get milk and stuff for dinner? I'll text you when I'm done. Make sure to leave no trace that this was you and make sure to leave a message."
"Gotcha. See you in a sec." Axel set his bag down and started raiding the colours before he got to work. It ended up as a rainbow bear roaring towards the the sky and what he roared out was 'Family first'. Axel added a little cub underneath the bears legs and took a step back, smiling a little. Father and son. Bit like Mick and Teddy. He tossed his empty cans into the bag and when Leonard text him, he slid down and hurried back to where Leonard was.
"Nothing. I got those disgusting sugar drinks you like, you want one?" Leonard held it out for Axel, smirking. "Now that you've exhaled pain fumes, might as well get you high on sugar too. You ready to go?"
He reached out and rubbed a smudge of paint off Axel's cheek.
"Cool, it's blue soda! I love blue drinks. Blue is pretty healthy, I think it's like a fruit." Axel took the soda and grinned as he looked it over. Finally, he lower the can and came in closer to Leonard, pulling him into a hug like he did before. He knew Leonard didn't like contact and honestly, Axel wasn't fond of positive contact either but he had a crappy day and the only bright spark was Leonard.
He clung to him and buried his head into the other's shoulder, taking a moment to just seek comfort. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I should have. You're always good to me. I love you."
"That's fine, Ax. I ain't good to you so you'll listen to whatever I say. I want you to think for yourself and make your own choices. I want your respect. But mostly you gotta respect yourself." And he could tell that Axel wasn't good at that. Hell, anyone could tell that. Leonard held him close, for once, even if it was a lot of contact. "Your father doesn't deserve you."
"It's hard. I dunno. I'm stuck and I don't know the way out and I wanted my dad to help me." Axel admitted as he closed his eyes and focused on Leonard, the only person he felt could give a shit right now. He knew others would, he knew Lisa and Hartley cared but right now, he just needed someone like Leonard. "I hate my job, I hate all of this and I just want everything to be okay already."
Leonard carded his fingers through Axel's hair, dismissing his own discomfort in favour of comforting Axel. He waited for the boy to talk by himself, only prompting him slightly. "What's keeping you from quitting the job?"
"Money. I need money. I'm not old enough to legally live alone, I'd have to go back to care and I can't do that. Besides, the people there... they'd never let me leave." He pulled back because he knew that even if he was enjoying this, Leonard probably wasn't. He'd teared up a little and he swiftly tried to wipe it away with his hand. "If I go back to school then I have to go back to care."
"How about staying with Mick and us?" Leonard might not be there full-time - yet - but those were all things in the works, as he'd told Axel earlier today. "That ain't an option?" Because it ought to be. "You're old enough, if you have a place to stay at and Mick is letting you, the system's gonna let you hang around. You'd just have to be on best behaviour or you could endanger Mick's chances of keeping Teddy too."
"I dunno if they'd let me. It's a whole system and I was trying to avoid attention. Besides, I don't want to risk Teddy." He wanted to but he felt like of uneasy. What if he fucked up? He nearly always fucked up. "I always fuck up, it's what I do. What if I fucked up and I risked Teddy? He needs his dad and Mick is such a good dad!" And he couldn't ruin that. He couldn't take that away from the kid.
"Then I'll figure something else out. But first we'll get you out of your job, yeah? We can see about school later. You'll finally give me some names?" Leonard knew he had to be careful, but he also needed to start somewhere. Ultimately, Axel was just another whore to these creeps. He could get him out of there, he knew that. He just needed Axel to believe in him. "And you'll stay with us. On best behaviour. Help me out whenever I need you, help Hartley with Axel and bake cake."
Axel nodded his head and looked down, biting his lower lip. "I'll give you names. But later." Not here in a very public car park. He moved to the car finally and waited for Leonard to unlock it. He slipped inside and crossed his arms, unsure if what he was doing was even a good idea. "I'll be good. I promise. You'll have to help me find money though." He needed to have some kind of income or he'd be back to square one."
"I'll figure out a way for you to get money," Leonard promised as he did up his seat belt, not telling Axel that he already had a few ideas. He couldn't tell him that or Axel would give up on it before he even got started. "For now you tell Hartley that you're going to quit and then you can get some cuddles in."
"I'll do it." Axel agreed as he did up his seat belt and held himself as he looked straight ahead, trying not to worry too much. "I still don't quite know why you ever gave a shit about me but I'm glad you do. Cause I'd be fucked otherwise. Thanks." Axel nodded his head a little, wishing he didn't have so much to worry about.
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catchacold) wrote2017-01-25 08:55 pm
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"How about you play for a while and I go get milk and stuff for dinner? I'll text you when I'm done. Make sure to leave no trace that this was you and make sure to leave a message."
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"Sup, Lenny."
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He reached out and rubbed a smudge of paint off Axel's cheek.
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He clung to him and buried his head into the other's shoulder, taking a moment to just seek comfort. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I should have. You're always good to me. I love you."
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