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Ladon wasn’t staying over at Lina's as much as he first did when Aree was first injured but with frequent fights involving Elysion, he popped in to see how Tanzanite was the morning after, usually at the crack of dawn, and came in from time to time to see if she was eating. Sometimes without asking, he'd come in, take off his coat, and start working on breakfast, lunch, or dinner, waiting for her to come out and giving her a cheery hello despite whatever mood she was in. It was nice to cook for someone. Even though he was pretty much on his own at his mother's house, it was still different to living alone at his apartment. Lina's place also had a better kitchen and gave him the excuse to use it for Aree's benefit.

It was around lunch and he was making some beef stew. It had been a tad cold out and he wanted to make something hearty that could keep in the fridge. He knew that a certain someone wouldn't be finishing a big bowl, but at least she would have it there if she wanted to reheat something up later. He'd also gotten word that her recruit Bismuthite would be coming and was trying to keep out of the way in the kitchen if they needed to talk privately in the living room.

As he stirred, he hummed a familiar tune and then stopped, frowning. Stupid Unicorn song. It had been stuck in his head all week.

Over the past week or so, Tanzanite had learned to deal with Ladon's peculiar behavior. The first few times she had tried to explain, once again, that she had a months. And, once again, she ended up sitting at her small kitchen table eating her bacon and eggs and being scolded for not taking care of herself. It was strange, how somehow Ladon – not even Captain Wolframite, but Ladon – was able to get the often ill-tempered General to sit down and do whatever it was he thought was best for her.

Linarite would have said that getting Aree Cadence to take care of herself was an impossible task, but Ladon was slowly but surely making progress.

When Billy's fist rapped upon the door, Aree was sitting on the couch, picking at her stitches in the way Ladon had often told her not to. She was frowning intently at her own forearm, as though glaring at the long, stitched up gash would make the thing heal any faster. Of course, one couldn't blame her for trying when things usually went away if she stared at them long enough without speaking.

“Maybe we should cut off this arm, too,” she grumbled as she pulled Nealite's throw pillow out of her lap and stood to answer the door, “Then I could have two youma arms and no stitches.”

It was Billy's face that awaited her, and Aree stepped aside to let the boy in. It was rare that the General met with anyone in human form those days, given the difficulty of maintaining it, but things were a bit different. She considered Wolframite her Captain and Bismuthite her Lieutenant in the same way she considered Alkaid her corrupted senshi. As such, they had to deal with less of her stubborn formality than most. Hell, Aree even managed a smile as she welcomed Billy through the door.

“You would wear a cowboy hat to my ******** apartment,” she said, as though it were some grand offense. “I don't know how well the two of you know one another, but-” a hand gestured to Ladon as she stepped in past the kitchen, “Bismuthite, Wolframite. Wolframite, this is apparently John ******** Wayne."

"But of course~" Billy said to the rather unconventional greeting while taking of his hat and wearing a rather s**t-eating grin. At least the hat wasn't pink. Billy didn't like the color, but it seemed he was cursed to it. No. It was a rather nice straw cowboy hat - darker around the edges.

Yeah. Douchebag.


Stepping in to the apartment his sights landed on...on Ladon as introductions were being made.
Ladon? His innocent, sweet, little boyfriend was a warrior of Earth? And not just any, but a captain? Needless to say the look in his eyes showed, despite whatever efforts he might have made otherwise, his shock. His mouth seemed to go dry as he gave his reply to Aree;

"Yes. We know one another. Rather...well." I thought.

Thinking about it, he shouldn't be so surprised. He couldn't quite put his finger on why it made sense to him now, though. Perhaps it was piecing what he knew of Ladon, and his interactions with Captain Wolframite that did it. Either way this, though shocking, was a rather pleasant turn of events. Except last time he has seen Ladon was Valentines day. And he'd left him with a short, sweet kiss.

He never took his eyes off of Ladon as he spoke, again to Aree, "He's my boyfriend."

This was so wrong on too many levels, and Ladon's eyes stared wide at something he didn't expect to face. First off, that hat was awful and he wanted to smack it off. Really? Cowboy? That wasn't the most important but it was nice to focus on something else for a moment as he absorbed reality bit by bit. It was an ever rising state of panic that he noticed Billy was here, in front of Aree, here. The way he spoke was clam and collected, not entirely shocked but not exactly cheerful either. The fact he mentioned they knew each other "rather well" made the hair's on the back of his neck stand on end. He wouldn't. He couldn't!

And to not leave any confusion, Billy just went out and casually stated that not only was he attracted to boys, but was with him. Ladon wanted to die. It wasn't so much embarrassment that he was with a guy that it was that it was broadcasting his relationship and his personal life to an officer he respected and didn’t want to lose respect with. Not only that, but it was PESRONAL! As much as he liked sharing and getting to know his fellow Negas, he wasn't the type to share anything when it came to relationships. Just talking about it to Paris made him uncomfortable and unsure of himself.

Stunned that Billy just so casually tossed that out there not to mention that he was HERE in the first place to toss it out was frying the poor Captain's brain. There was far too much to address at once, but Aree's comment about not only ripping her stitches but doing…THAT…on the counters made him turn 7 shades of red and sputter. "I would…we…never.. it's not like……We wouldn't do THAT!" He managed, but she was already walking off. He wanted to yell at her about the fork, but he was too busy trying to get his brain and tongue to work to form words.

Turning about, he glared at the lieutenant, his boyfriend, and wanted to KILL HIM! "I can't believe you said that!! And …And Bismuthite?! YOU'RE Bisbuthite! You’re the guy in that god-awful pink uniform?! I can't believe you - And now?! What the heck was that?!!! She's my commanding officer!" He gestured to where Aree left, and wanted to just DIE then and there.

He was at least he could look at Billy without the ridiculous hat, but the way he was talking was rubbing him in all the wrong ways. "Don't even start like that. You know I'm a private person." Clearly, seeing as Ladon had been very reserved most of the time they talked to each other. When it came to what he did and what he liked, Ladon rarely said much of anything. It seemed today was an exception, but when a big part of your life was just throw out into the open as it was, he had little choice.

"You might be new, but I've been around long enough to not drop that big bomb on a person. What did you expect me to say? Just throwing that out there and you can't even say anything about holding secrets. Those WERE youma that you were painting. I knew they looked too similar." Of course, it was seeing Billy's youma painting that got them to start talking in the first place.

He jerked back, not allowing Billy to be so calm, so sweet, so aggravating easy about all of this. So he was hurt, but making him be the one that was entirely the bad guy wasn't something he was willing to let go. The fact he was so calm drove him crazy, and he was more and more flustered about it all in response. "Oh yeah. Real realistic there, Billy." He glanced to where Aree vanished and lowered his voice. "Kiss a person and suddenly you tell them you're in a secret organization. That's real smart. I'd be in a whole heck of a lot of trouble if I did that, and you'd probably be slaughtered for knowing too much. Don't act like you know how the organization works when you just started. I've already been through that whole song and dance. It's not pretty." He knew a bit more about the consequences and the protocol of the Negaverse and civilians than Billy did. He went through all of that with Tate after all!

He smacked Billy's hat off the counter just to vent, and crossed his arms. Stupid hat. "I'm sorry Billy if I wasn't so OPEN about all of this, but I don't go announcing my relationships to people I hold in such high regard when I'm still trying to figure myself out. We can all loose ourselves in gym class and just be so SURE of ourselves, now can we?" He was still just discovering himself after all so to have Billy start this up just pushed him further. If he went and started pushing buttons, he push and shove right back.

Ladon was rubbing his temple, trying to work all this in proper order, but this was just one big ******** of information and revelation that he didn't expect to deal with today. To actually see Billy get a bit riled actually made him feel a little better only because it broke that stupid smile he had had on his face and got a more genuine reaction from him. Still, it came off as the boy feeling entitled for the effort he went through, which rather bugged Ladon.

"Oh don't you start now. You made it sound so easy to just mess with someone and be completely sure of yourself. I don't hate you, Billy." Well, he was pissed at him, but only because of a few things that he had to work out in his brain. This was giving him a headache and in the back of his mind, he knew his stew was getting cold. He took a breather.

"I like you. Don't get me wrong. You know better than anyone that I'm not the one to run off with just anyone. If I wasn't sure of something, if I wasn't in it for the long haul, then I'd just be like everyone else and have plenty of little flings here and there. You should know that, but it's new. You're new. All of this is new to me. I'm not about to jump on a taxi roof and scream it to the world. I'm not like that. "

There were more pressing matters to address. "I still can't even get over that you're Bismuthite." What the heck did that even do for their relationship now? It was so screwed up. This made everything messy.

This was getting more annoying the more he was here, and he wished that hat was still around to smack around. Instead, he tapped his foot, leaning on the nearest wall and just looked at Billy before he threw a hand up to stop him. "Whoa. Don't make it out like you’re the only person here putting themselves out there. You're making it sound like I didn't put anything into this. I've been putting myself out there too. You don't think I'd be hurt if something happened?" Didn't he know that by how upset he got over Paris? Over some of the worry he had and the constant doubt he had that Billy would find someone better? The nerve!

"And what does your ego have to do with this? What? Can't puff up with pride when you take me around cause I'm just…me?" He felt that if anything was a hit to his ego it would be that he didn't have the best of the best. While Billy was sweet, he made it clear he didn't think highly of most people and probably wanted to have someone he could brag about. Meaning, if he had Ladon, he really had nothing to show off.