Haru

The feeling of Aiden's warm hand around my arm made my heart race and my stupid dick respond in the most inappropriate way. Shit! And I had just jerked off in the shower, too, all the while imagining doing it with Aiden.

Youth could be so damned hard to deal with.

I moved my arm away from his touch. My face hot and probably red, I said, "All right. All right. I'll have breakfast." Just so he would leave me alone.

Honestly, the only way to make Aiden rest his case was to do what he demanded of me. In this instance, eating breakfast.

Taking a step back, I raised my gaze to his face and said insistently and clearly, "But you don't have to drop me off. It's not that far anyway, and biking doesn't take long."

With that declaration firmly out of the way, I turned my back on him and took a seat beside Isaac.

As I reached out and got myself a slice of toast, I spied him taking his seat across the table. I could sense that he was watching me intently, like a mother hen, making sure I ate enough to sustain me until lunchtime.

I blamed his overprotective attitude toward me on that incident a year after our parents' deaths. At the time, I had collapsed at school and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. It was found out that I was severely malnourished and had depression and anxiety problems. Well, what child didn't, after his parents had just passed away? Especially at the age of fourteen when life itself was one big, crazy mess?

The incident had scared everyone shitless, particularly Aiden, who had been frantic. After I was discharged from the hospital, those lousy social services people had turned up and made a big fuss investigating our living conditions. This had stressed Aiden out to the max as he had been the sole guardian of us brothers under the age of eighteen—Reo, Mason, Isaac, and, of course, me.

Aiden had worked his ass off convincing the case manager that he was a capable guardian and that they didn't need to remove any of us from his care, despite working various part-time jobs with ridiculous hours to support us while studying for a business degree at the same time.

At the end of the review, they decided to take me away, which made Aiden go berserk and only worsened the already dire situation. To this day, I still remember that fateful morning when the social services woman came to drag me away. I had been crying my eyeballs out and clinging desperately to Aiden. In fact, I had been so scared of losing Aiden and all my brothers that I went into overdrive with fear and anxiety and collapsed right there at the doorstep.

Once again, I was hospitalized, and of course, the social services woman was scolded by the higher ups for her highhandedness. Eventually, another manager was put on our case, and after another thorough review, she convinced us that taking me away was for the best and it would only be for a short time, until my health stabilized.

Before they came to take me away, Aiden had assured me that everything would be all right.

"Look at me, Haru," he had said, his warm hands cupping my teary face as we sat there on the hospital bed. "I will come back to get you. We're family and I promised to take good care of you, didn't I? You know I will never abandon you." He hugged me tight and even kissed my forehead to soothe me, convincing me of his devotion. "You're precious to me, Haru, and I seriously won't know what to do if I don't have you with me."

His words had managed to calm me down and put my fears at ease. We even did a pinky swear. Yeah, at the age of fourteen I did a pinky swear.

It was three months later that the agency did another review, and because my health was a little better, I was able to return home, which was a relief to everyone, especially Aiden, who had been overjoyed and wouldn't let me out of his sight henceforth.

I remembered we had spent the whole weekend partying and sleeping in the living room, Japanese style, for my homecoming. It had been the first time any of us had smiled and laughed from the heart since our parents' deaths. The first time any of us had felt like we were alive again.

Thinking about those days made my heart ache, and I couldn't help myself and sneaked a peek at Aiden, who still had his gaze fixed on me.

Our eyes met, and my heart skipped. I glanced away, my body tense.

Shit! That gaze was so freakin' intense. Suddenly, I lost my appetite.

"You don't need to watch him eat, Aiden," Reo said. "I'm sure he knows where his mouth is and how to chew his food properly."

Reo's comment made me choke on the food I had just eaten, and start coughing severely.

Beside me, Isaac offered me his glass of water. He said, "Jesus, Haru, slow down. No need to rush with the eating."

I gladly took the offered drink and downed the lot in one go.

Aiden said, "I'll pick you up after you've finished your shift at the restaurant tonight."

Feeling much better now that I was no longer choking on my own meal, I put the empty glass down on the table and said, "I told you, I'm fine coming back by myself."

"At midnight on a Saturday?" Aiden asked. "You looking the way you do doesn't help the fact that it's not safe. I have no idea how many times one of us have had to intervene and save you from those types of bastards already."

By those types of bastards, he meant questionable men who were apparently obsessed with boys like me, and made it their hobby to stalk and jump me along the dark streets of New York City at night.

My face heated up at Aiden's statement. Firstly, because I was embarrassed at the reminder. Secondly, because Aiden's words hit me right where it hurt—me being treated like some damsel in distress. And thirdly, because I hated those bastards who always seemed to pick me to stalk. I was an eighteen-year-old boy, for God's sake, not some pretty girl oozing with sex appeal.

Reo said, "It can't be helped you looking like that, Haru. Mom said you have the gene from our ancestor back in Japan."