Chapter 2 - One of these days, Cesar

"I don't know what's been up with her lately, but she's been super bratty these past few months."

Lucius inhaled a sharp breath from the blunt before passing it over to Dante who was seated next to him.

They had all aged.

Lucius, with a bit more wrinkles and a blond beard, had gotten much more muscular and bulkier. There were more lines across his forehead, but it only toughened his look. He had decided to take over the Hercules' troop, and spent days on end on missions that were more dangerous than he made it seem to Sarah, who panicked whenever he returned with bruises and cuts that she had to nurse.

Dante had been much more of a family man. He had gained a bit of weight, but his muscles were still a dominant feature of his physique. He had gotten a few more tattoos, one of Nate's name right underneath his collarbone, another one of their son's name across his shoulder, along with numerous other dragon ones. He had a stubble beard across his jaw, and his hair had gotten long that it reached his chest, but he always wrapped it in a bun anyway. Dante had decided to find a calm and easy office job that he only worked part-time, because he loved spending most of his time at home with Charles and Nate.

Jake had been trying to change his style by dying his hair burgundy—suggested by Lucius—and he was still getting used to it, but he got many more piercings. A nose piercing, lip piercing, a few on his ears, both cartilages on each side, and one piercing right in the center of his neck. Bronsted and Jules looked completely the same, other than a few signs of maturity across their faces as they finally grew into their features. Bronsted had gotten taller by a few inches, and Jules—who had been lifting weights with Lucius—had definitely gotten toner and much more intimidating.

As all of them aged, it seemed as though Cesar was actually getting younger; not a single wrinkle in sight, his skin as flawless and glowy to the point that it reflected from the sun, almost as glossy as his lip gloss. His only difference was that he had started dying his eyebrows silver and wore silver mascara to match his hair.

From all of them though, the one that had changed the most was Nate. He was not as clueless and lost as he used to be, neither did he have a short fuse anymore. Much calmer and reasoned as he used to be, Nate had gotten a couple inches taller, had lost a bit of weight which contributed to his high cheekbones and sharpened jawline, his eyes were no longer round and innocent as they used to be, but had gotten naturally narrower over the years. Plus, being a father had given him much more of a fatherly aura, protective over anything and everything that regarded his family. It also made him more patient and gentle, which definitely helped his relationship with Dante.

Although time had passed, they were still as close as ever, which was why they all got involved the moment anything happened to any one of them.

Or whenever Natalia did some ridiculous stunt.

"Wasn't it a few weeks ago that she got herself into a police chase for a pair of sunglasses?" Bronsted mentioned, seated on the sofa across from Lucius and Dante.

Jules, who had been focusing on a sports match on television, seated directly in front of it with a mouth full of chips, raised a finger to blurt, "I bailed her out for that one."

Nate had been slowly pacing back and forth, his arms folded while staring into space; these kids had been giving him headache after headache. "Charles was supposed to be in that car," he commented quietly.

Dante eyed Nate for a moment, listening to the gentle clacks of his dress-shoes, and the way his light grey dress-shirt held his chest and arms tightly. Nate had definitely gotten handsomer over the years; he had molded into his adult features, appearing much more older and mature, and those small instances of Nate looking that good was when Dante had a hard time resisting his hormones.

"I don't think it's only her though," Dante admitted, handing over the blunt to the waiting Jake who was seated on the floor beside Jules, also watching the game. "Charles has been acting out as well."

"I happen to disagree with your speculations." The soft tone of Cesar, as though he was singing a calm lullaby whenever he spoke, caused Lucius to roll his eyes. Even the fact that Cesar was wearing a pink vest with a matching beret on his head, was irritating Lucius who still hadn't found the space to stand Cesar being around. Cesar always did odd things, such as randomly deciding to have a British accent, which bothered Lucius to the core. Cesar had his legs folded over the other, seated nearby as he whispered with a smirk, "It could be sexual tension...sexual...confusion..."

The wiggling of Cesar's eyebrows made Lucius reach for the sofa cushion and throw it in his direction, to which Cesar stopped with a palm. He pointed his cigarette in Cesar's direction as he snapped, "I'll throw the burning end of the blunt directly into your eye if you keep talking nonsense."

Instantly, Cesar's hands raised apologetically, politely bowing his head forward. "Puberty does insane changes to women and men's mindset at that age, that's all I meant to say."

"No," Nate mumbled to himself, "not that severe." It was true that they had been both acting out, and it had been getting worse and worse. "What if...what if they're hiding something?"

It was the first time Jules peeled his eyes away from the television and he stopped munching on his chips. "What could they be hiding?"

"That pair of sunglasses was ten thousand dollars, and those kilograms of drugs could have gotten her tens of thousands if she sold them, maybe even a hundred thousand," Nate deduced, his eyes widening the more he reached his conclusion. "What if she has an issue with money?"

"We don't have issues with money."

The retort from Lucius and the narrowed eyes he received made Nate send him an apologetic smile, chuckling softly as he explained, "I'm not saying you do, Lucy, but what if she got in trouble with someone and now, she owes them money?"

Nate was surprised by the silence that followed, it was as unusually heavy that one could hear a pin drop. A few of their looks had gotten much graver, all of them exchanging looks with tightened jaws. Nate noticed the way Lucius' fingers stretched, as though trying to stop himself from bawling it into a fist.

"Natalia isn't an idiot though," Bronsted chuckled, attempting to diffuse the situation a bit. "She wouldn't get herself in trouble with money."

The atmosphere had gotten a bit lighter, until they all heard, "Um...I'm sorry, I have something to confess...unfortunately..." Cesar flinched when all their sharpened eyes twisted to him. Lucius could already feel his blood boil when he heard that from Cesar, who had instinctively distanced himself from all of them. He knew what he was about to reveal was definitely going to disturb all of them, but he had to say it anyway. "Natalia did ask me for ten thousand dollars."

"What?" Nate gasped.

Dante shook his head. "You're joking, right?"

"What the fuck?" Jake slammed his palm against his forehead; none of what Cesar did ever made sense. "Why the hell would a seventeen year old need ten grand?"

"And why the fuck didn't you think to share that with her fucking father?" Cesar stepped further backwards the moment he heard the growl from Lucius. It wasn't that he was scared, he was merely not in the mood for a physical altercation, especially with a wild animal like Lucius. However, it might happen since Lucius stormed to his feet, his broadened shoulders facing Cesar as he slowly stepped towards him. "You've been doing too much shit, Cesar, and I'm starting to get really fucking sick of you—"

"Alright, let's all take a breath." Dante lunged in between them, planting a palm against Lucius' chest. "There's no need to fight amongst ourselves."

"No, there is a need to knock some senses through that empty skull of that clown." The number of times Lucius had heard that when it came to Cesar was way too much for him to bear, hence he shoved Dante's hand away from and attempted to step around him. "I've told you all that I didn't want any sneaky shit behind my back when she's with any of you, and that's exactly what he's been fucking doing!"

"Every child needs to have a cool uncle!" Cesar argued back, as though it was a valid point. He shrugged his shoulders and grinned, "I'm just that one."

Lucius' teeth gritted, and when Dante saw his fists clamped at his sides, he quickly pressed his palms against Lucius' forearms and pushed him backwards. "Dante, I will kill him."

"Ignore him," Dante hissed, shoving Lucius further back away from Cesar.

The attention shifted away from them when Jake asked, "Did you give her the money?" His tone had sounded hostile, as though he was warning Cesar to give the right answer.

Cesar rapidly shook his head, even waving his hands as though he would never have made such a mistake. "Of course not," he boomed with a long smile. But then, he lowered his eyes, cleared his throat and quietly revealed under his breath, "I gave her nine grand."

"No!" Dante stopped Lucius again, wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him away before he could attempt to land a punch on Cesar. "Not now, Lucius!"

The rest of them grumbled and groaned, Jules planting a palm on his forehead, Bronsted shaking his head in disbelief, and Nate looking up at the ceiling.

As for Jake, he exhaled a shaky breath and continuously opened and closed his fists. "I'm going to try to be reasonable, even though I want to strike you in the face right now," he snarled. "What did she do with the nine grand?"

Cesar shrugged his shoulders. "Not a clue, but she asked me for ten grand again and that time I said no." He paused for a second, before patting himself on the back as he grinned, "I only gave her one."

"So you did give her ten grand..." Bronsted mumbled.

Cesar said that as though it was an accomplishment and Lucius, who desperately wanted to reach around that thin lengthy neck of Cesar and grip it as tight as he could until his face turned purple, turned around and growled, "I need to get a breather." As he walked away, he mumbled under his breath, "One of these days Cesar, one of these fucking days..."

"She does have something with money then," Nate concluded, slamming his fist into his other metallic palm. "And if she's hiding it like this, then those people are more dangerous than we are."

"That would make sense," Dante added with a deepened tone. "Natalia has never been frightened to tell us any of her issues with the law or troops before. If she's lying now, then they either have a huge troop or they threatened her with something serious."

"There isn't any troop as big as mine or Draco's old one," Cesar stated seriously, folding his arms. "There must be something else going on."

Jules pressed the end of the blunt against the ash tray and set it aside. "You have to press Charles about it, he'd cave."

"Maybe Asher would know something?" Bronsted suggested.

"No." Lucius returned, his breathing having calmed down and his face not as stiff anymore. "Natalia doesn't like hanging around her younger brother because he's a snitch, so Asher wouldn't know a thing. I'll still question him tomorrow morning, though."

"We'll talk to Charles tomorrow morning too," Nate said as he met Dante's gaze and they both nodded in agreement. "Hopefully it's nothing serious."

Lucius shook his head, uncertain of that fact. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this; I think it's something really serious."

"I'll be honest, I was going to keep my mouth shut but..." Jules pressed his palms on his hips and sighed, "When I started acting out at seventeen, it was because it was the first time I killed someone."

Cesar snorted, shaking his head as he giggled, "Natalia hasn't killed anybody." He said it with such mockery, as though Jules was a complete idiot for assuming something like that.

And Bronsted didn't like that, hence he defended him as he said, "But what if she witnessed someone die? That could be the reason why."

"There is no way Natalia watched someone die or killed anybody. That's not the case," Lucius hissed.

"Well," Dante sighed, reaching for his car keys on the table, "we won't know until we question our children. Let's make a group call tomorrow night and talk about what we found out. We need to get home."

"Yeah," Jules exhaled tiredly; they had been talking about this matter for three hours. He reached for Bronsted's waist and pulled him to his feet. "We should head back too."

"I'm going to ask Sarah to keep an eye on you," Dante hissed at Lucius who rolled his eyes. "I don't want you to do anything stupid."

Lucius shook his head and grumbled menacingly, "I'm letting Nat sleep for tonight because I'm going to grill her tomorrow until she fucking caves."

"Can I be there for it?" Cesar asked with a smile.

All in unison, they growled, "No!"