Broken Bond: Between Vices and Virtues (BL)
Chapter 54: Knoa meets a stranger [2]

Chapter 54: Knoa meets a stranger [2]

Azrael’s eyebrow twitched ever slightly at the young boy’s audacity to lecture him for not eating his food. He was busy checking emails when he caught the little one picking his food as though it was something the kid owned. That behavior was wrong, so he intended to scold him and whoever the parents were for letting their child roam, but he got lectured instead.

"Papa said it’s bad to let food sit! He said not good if you waste food too! Some kids don’t eat...go hungry, but you wasting food!" The young boy huffed, feigning his courage and acting to convince the adult not to make a scene. If his father knows that he picked someone’s food, Knoa will be scolded. So, the little guy stood his ground and didn’t falter from the pressing aura of the adult before him.

Azrael put his tablet down and tapped his fingers on his knee. "Wow. You’re still a kid, and yet you’re good at gaslighting already. Tell me why I should care for the other kids getting hungry. Will their stomach get filled if I eat all my food and leave no crumbs?"

The kid just knitted his thick eyebrows, full of confusion and ignorance to his words.

Azrael observed the kid for a minute. With his curly dark hair that looked as soft as feathers and would sway as he moved his small head, his chubby cheeks and plump stomach, a clean face with a trace of chocolate in his tiny pouty lips, and wearing decent clothes, Azrael concluded the boy wasn’t a stray who entered the place to beg for food and money.

"Ha...why did I even consider that? Of course, the security won’t let someone like that enter," he murmured. He averted his eyes from the kid and glanced around while asking, then he asked commandingly, "Where are your parents?"

Knoa answered honestly, a bit nervous now that the stranger had asked about his father, "Papa’s asleep in the room!"

The alpha furrowed his brows, "So, you came here with your Mama, then? Where is she? Go back to her and stop drooling over my cake. If you want one like this, tell your Mama to buy you one, kid. It’s wrong to touch food you don’t own without permission. What if I spiked it and your mouth started foaming?"

Knoa tilted his head in puzzlement, "Spike? What’s that?"

Azrael, unaware that he was actually enjoying a conversation with a little kid, answered eagerly, "It means putting something on someone’s food that can make them sleep and get robbed, or make them vomit until they drop dead...anyway, forget it. Go back to where you came from, kid. Don’t disturb me."

’Why am I even explaining things here?’ the alpha couldn’t help but wonder. He picked up the fork and sliced the cake, then ate it gracefully while having the kid watch him like an actor advertising a chocolate cake.

Knoa grimaced. He pointed at the cake with a complicated expression, and then he looked up at Azrael and asked seriously, "Why did you eat it if it’s spiked?"

Azrael swallowed the food and stabbed another slice, "I said ’if’, kid. Notice the emphasis. Why I would spike my food? Only morons do that."

"Moron...what’s that? Are you one?"

"Moron is a person who—stop asking me questions. Where is your Mama? If you’re Papa is asleep, then you must have come here with your Mama. Come on, go back to her, your mother must have been looking for you already. She must have been crying and frantically looking for you, so get lost..."

Azrael’s voice lowered and eventually stopped after witnessing the child’s face change. His bright green eyes lowered, his eyebrows knitted, his face scrunched and the ends of his lips started to curve downwards.

The alpha felt a foreboding. He could see himself gathering attention from making a kid cry and getting branded childish and immature.

He reluctantly pushed the plate of cake toward the kid, but the kid wasn’t impressed. He just looked up with his teary eyes and mumbled lowly, "Knoa got no Mama..."

Azrael never experienced a loss for words in front of a kid. His conscience was nitpicking him and wouldn’t stop until the toddler’s mood changed to being bright and bubbly again. He cleared his throat and convinced the child, "Okay, what do you want? I’ll give it to you. Do you want this cake? I’ll order another one for you," he pressed the kid’s knitted eyebrows and gently stated, "Stop frowning now. It looks ug—I mean...big boys don’t cry, as they said, right?"

The toddler tilted his head, trying to understand his words.

Azrael didn’t like kids in particular. They are noisy, troublesome, chaotic, dramatic, and he views them as eccentric little caterpillars wriggling around a crowded path waiting to be stomped upon and die if not watched over or taken care of properly.

However, when he saw the little kid’s bright green eyes downcast and looked sad, he found himself reaching his hands out to lift the boy’s chubby chin. Those round green eyes that resemble gemstones sparkling under the light bore into him, and it felt familiar and nostalgic as though he once stared upon those innocent eyes before.

Then it dawned on him. ’It’s similar to Knox’s eyes...’ he thought to himself. He let go of the kid’s face and erased the thought in his head. His eyes changed when he recalled that the omega was in heat and tried to be with another alpha. He made sure the two wouldn’t even have the time to do lewd things by pressing the matters of his complaints to the court and hastening the trial.

’I’m sure that bastard is scampering to his father to ask for help,’ he smugly thought with a cocky smirk.

Knoa’s face slightly brightened after hearing that he would get to ask for anything. "Buying Knoa what he wants? Really? No takebacks?"

Azrael snapped from his reverie. His brow arched, "Oh, kids are simpler than I thought. Right, anything, I’m very rich, just so you know."

Knoa beamed, "I want chocolate cake!" he giggled after seeing the adult sigh resignedly. He then added casually, "Uncle Athan’s rich, too! He buys Knoa everything!"

Azrael who was about to stand up to order chocolate cake, halted upon hearing that name. Just hearing the name of that man could make his mood turn sour. Unconsciously, he glared at the kid without suppressing his anger toward his uncle, and the kid, seemingly aware of the change in the stranger’s temper, flinched.

"Oh my gosh, Knoa! Why are you here?! You shouldn’t be wandering..." Shawn’s voice trailed off after noticing the chocolate cake closer to the kid and the traces of brown on his lips and teeth. His face paled and he fretted. Glancing up at the man whose demeanor shouts displeasure, Shawn awkwardly smiled and pulled Knoa away from the table, "I’m sorry, but did he eat your cake, by chance? If he did, I will buy you another, please don’t get mad at the child."

Azrael observed the new guy. He could smell a whiff of sweet scent on him. He grimaced and answered, "Don’t let your kid wander off alone."

The omega nodded repeatedly. Azrael caught sight of Luis walking by the entrance so he prepared to leave. His secretary had already retrieved the papers he asked to get, so there was no need to stay in that place any longer.

Shawn picked up Knoa and whispered, "Knoa, why would you eat someone’s food? That’s not good!"

Knoa pouted, "Sorry..."

The male omega sighed and consoled him, "If you want that cake, let’s order a take-out, hm? Say sorry to the man now."

The kid turned to the stranger and bowed his head slightly, "Sorry..."

Azrael puffed an air and looked away. He folded his arm and just waved his hand after, dismissing the kid and the omega, whom he concluded as the kid’s mother. It made sense that the kid would think he didn’t have a mother since he probably hasn’t learned about the genders and reproductive system.

He watched the omega and his son walked away as he stood. The two even bumped into his secretary on the way out when the aisle was wide enough to accommodate them. The folders Luis was carrying somehow fell and scattered on the floor.

"Gosh, I’m sorry, sir!" The omega’s shrill voice resonated, followed by Azrael’s secretary’s calm reply. The three even ended up picking the folders while the kid just stood by the side, crestfallen, and quiet.

Azrael sighed and shook his head. "What a bunch of clumsy people," he murmured. Instead of going and helping Luis, he just sat back and watched them. After a minute, Luis approached him and apologized for making him wait.

However, his eyes drifted to the pair of father and son again. The kid, resting his head on his father’s shoulder noticed his gaze and waved at him. For a moment there, Azrael felt waving back, but the two already passed the door and the kid looked away, his dejected face brightened and became livelier.

Even from afar, Azrael could read his lips shouting ’Papa’. Before the two disappeared from his sight, a pair of pale arms scooped the kid from his omega father and walked away.

"Sir, should we get going?"

Azrael nodded and stood. As he was leaving, his eyes glimpsed the unfinished chocolate cake and unconsciously muttered, "Ah, I said I’ll buy him anything..."

"Pardon?" Luis looked back and asked, confused.

"It’s nothing," Azrael replied and shook the image of the little guy away from his mind.