Leon flipped the pancakes before setting it on the table for the kids to eat. Mariam immediately rushed for it before Faun could even stand. Faun frowned at her and said as he sat back in his seat, "Hey! The extra was for the both of us. Cut it in half."

"I'm your little sister. Let me have it." She replied with a mouth full of the pancake making Leon chuckle and Faun glared at him in response.

He quickly fell silent then tried to be annoyed by Mariam. "Now Mary, don't do that next time. You have to share, okay?"

"You hear that, Mary?" Faun smiled smugly.

Mariam swallowed then gave the both of them a sad look. "But Sophia said it's okay to not share. That if I did, I would never be satisfied with what I have."

Leon narrowed his eyes suspiciously at that. As days went, Leon had been learning about this Sophia girl and from what Mariam kept saying about her, she must be a very terrible person. However, Leon didn't know if it was time to tell Mariam to stop hanging with her.

"Now who's selfish? I'm going to school." Faun frowned at his sister before glancing at Leon and giving him a smile. "See you after school, dad."

Leon smiled at him, ruffling his hair before giving a rough push towards the door. "Be back early."

When he was already out the door, Leon turned to Mariam who was still drinking from her orange juice. "Now Mary, what you did there wasn't nice?"

"I was very hungry." She whined, placing her empty cup on the table gently.

"You were not hungry, Mariam. You ate three before that fourth one. You could've shared it."

She pouted, her dark brown eyes growing bigger which only surprised Leon. "I'm sorry. I'll share next time."

Leon sighed then smiled at her, "It's fine. Sharing is good, okay?"

She nodded and Leon came around the counter to help her down. "Okay kid, let's take you to Mrs. Lynn's place before she leaves." He let her pick up her bag from the table before he held her hand and led her out of the house.

"Daddy, can we go to the park today? Please?" Mariam asked they left the house.

Leon wanted to roll his eyes at her but he knew she wasn't the cause of his frustration. So he said instead with a wary smile, "If your other dad is free, he'll take you. You know I have work."

"But daddy never comes home early either." She whined but Leon wasn't annoyed at her. He was annoyed at himself and that man The Gay Project stuck him with.

Why hadn't they given him Andres? Or Vlad? Vlad's accent might be too deep for him to understand but at least he looked ready to do anything to get out of here. And Andres? He looked reasonable. They could work shit out.

Leon knocked on Mrs. Lynn's door when they finally got to their house. Checking his watch, he gave a relieved sigh when he saw there was still thirty minutes before Mariam's classes started. He knocked again and immediately brightened up when the chubby woman who had been helping him drop his kid at school opened the door.

"Leon." Mrs. Lynn grinned, pushing her glasses up the bridge her nose. She stepped out on the porch just as her own kid, peter came out.

Peter smiled at Mariam before running to the car. "Mum, open the door."

"You didn't greet Mr. Holmes, Peter. What do you say to people you haven't seen since the day started?" His mum frowned at him.

Peter turned to Leon immediately and said, "Good morning Mary's dad. How is your day going?"

Leon was impressed. If only he could get any of the kids to greet him like that. He smiled at the child and said, "It's going well, Peter. Have fun in school okay?"

When Peter nodded, his mum nodded at him and said, "It's open." She turned to Mariam and ruffled her pig tails, "Run along now. Go and join him in the car."

"Okay. Bye daddy." She waved at him and Leon returned it as she walked to the car.

When she had entered, he turned back to Mrs. Lynn and sighed. "Thank you so much again. Without you, this whole school run thing would have been impossible."

"Anything for a friend. Oh and I'm sorry about what Peter did. So disrespectful." She shook her head but managed a gentle smile for him. "You and Stuart should come over sometime."

Leon couldn't believe she was ashamed of her son for not greeting him. And with the obedience he showed, Leon was speechless. He shook his head at her and said, "No, it's fine. Kids forget like that. And thanks for the offer. I'll tell Stuart about it." He winked at her. "See you tomorrow."

She closed the door behind her and said, "Okay. Then we can all take a break for the week."

"We need that, don't we?" And Leon meant that in every sense of the way.

    Getting home, Leon saw Stuart run down the stairs. He was already dressed and had his suit jacket on his arm. Frowning, he gave Leon a glare before entering the dinning to the kitchen. To Leon, he knew he deserved it because he hadn't woken him up and that was because he didn't want to. Because today, he woke up with his mind made up. He had to leave this god forsaken town.

He didn't know what exactly made him make the decision but he could not handle the kids and this man at all. Faun was manageable, Mariam just wanted to be like Sophia who Leon thought was bad influence and Stuart... Leon knew no words could describe that man.

"Leon!" Stuart shouted and Leon held himself back from slamming his own head into a wall.

Taking a deep breath, he took Stuart's coat from the coat rack and went into the kitchen. "Yes, Stuart."

"Where's breakfast?" He asked as if it wasn't obvious enough.

Folding the coat on his arm, he released another sigh before answering, "The kids. They ate everything. Let me just make the coffee for you."

"Never mind. I'll just do that in school." He groaned then came closer to Leon to take the coat from him then tacked on, "Has the kids gone to school?"

"Yeah. Just dropped off Mariam."

Licking his lips, Leon thought it would be a good time to mention the task they had gotten a few days ago. The task had been to get the house decorated with Christmas décor. It looked like a normal task that shouldn't even be a problem but how could it not? When their accounts were dry and the only way to get enough money was to kiss or do something intimate for a hundred seconds?

"Stuart, we need to talk about the task we had gotten."

"Well, I don't."

"It's just for a minute, Stuart. Let's just kiss and get this over with." He said as he followed the man to the car in their driveway.

"But I don't want to kiss you. Isn't it obvious?" He said coolly as if what he said wasn't affecting Leon in anyway.

Leon entered the driver's seat as Stuart slid into the passenger's side. "Look Stuart, I'm trying to make this work. Let's make this work. I want to leave here. I might not have anyone to go and meet but I don't like the fact that I'm held down by a group or an organization I don't know about. Please Stuart."

"Let's not talk about this Leon. Please."

Staring at the man beside him, Leon could just lock the door, pin Stuart down and kiss him but then that would be raping and Leon couldn't go that low for such a thing.

Slamming his hand to the steering, Leon didn't care if it made Stuart jump because he had just had it with his resistance. Starting the ignition, Leon reared the car to life and drove angrily to drop Stuart off. Throughout, the drive, Leon didn't dare look at the man beside him because he didn't know what he would have done. The man had irritated him to the point he actually thought of hitting him.

Not even bothering to put the car on park, he stopped at his usual spot when he wanted to drop Stuart off.

"Leon-"

"Get out."

Again, he didn't give a fuck if it had hurt the Australian man's feelings, he just needed him out so he could attempt leaving the town again.

Stuart didn't say anything and just left the car, slamming door to show he too was mad. That still didn't shake Leon and he stepped on it, driving away quickly like he was drunk. He needed to get out of town. He couldn't live that fake married life anymore.

Then why couldn't he cross the line everytime he was in front of it. Why was he sitting in the car and staring ahead like if he crossed that line, he wouldn't be himself anymore? Why couldn't he see that line as freedom? Why? Why was it so hard to cross the line? Why?

Jerking on the car handle, Leon jumped out of the car to stand before the line. The sign board with Leaving Rainbow Bay stood tall and high as Vlad had said and onward was the Rainbow bay forest but a clean road that said there might be something at the end.

But why?

Why couldn't he just take one step out of the line? At least a step. Why did he have a deep feeling he would forget who he was when he took it? Maybe it was all the Once Upon a Time he watched with Faun. If the characters tried to leave the town something bad might happen or they might lose the identity of who they really were.

"Urgh." Groaning in annoyance, Leon fell to his knees as he stared at the freedom before him. He had to leave.

     An hour later and Leon was still contemplating leaving. What would happen if he did? What would happen if he didn't? What exactly was even stopping him from leaving?

Leon felt his heart skip a beat when he heard a car horn behind him. His eyes widened and he turned, startled by the loud noise which made him jump over the line. Immediately, his phone vibrated in his pocket but he never had the chance to answer it because his mind was on the car parked in front of him.

Standing up slowly, Leon watched Vlad come down from the car. The Russian stared at him, raising a brow. "You are zat Leon dude, right?"

He nodded weakly.

"Right." He said flatly. He started to speak again but fell shut to check his phone. Leon watched him knit his brows up in confusion then his eyes widened and he looked back at Leon. "You want to leave. I mean, are you trying to do it?"

"What?"

"Line. You crossed it." The man pointed, making Leon look down and realize he had indeed crossed the line. "You want to leave."

Leon shook his head immediately but felt sort of relieved to still have knowledge of what was going on. "No. I did not."

Leon didn't know why he was denying it. He had wanted to leave but now that he had finally crossed the line, the idea didn't look as intriguing as it should be.

Now that he had thought about it, where in San Francisco where they?

"I wanted to but I can't and I don't know why. Why can't I leave?" He asked, entering back into the town.

Vlad shrugged, moving to the front of his car to sit on it. "Maybe, it is because you not stupid. I have also tried leaving even when I am Sheriff's husband. Every time I come here, I end up calling him because for some reason, I love hearing him complain about stupid zings people do." He sighed. "And you would zink Gay Project would reduce crime rate or stop it or something."

"I think my reason for not leaving is fear." Leon finally admitted, taking a couple steps back until he was leaned against his car. "I'm scared of what's waiting for me beyond that line. I'm scared that something is going to happen to Stuart if I leave or I might be missing some opportunity I might never have again. I mean, The Gay Project controls us now."

"Zat is why I said let us play along."

"So, if they ask us to do something as absurd as," Leon felt his cheeks heat up and he cleared his throat at how weird he immediately felt at the thought of what he was about to say. "well, sex or something intimate?"

"Can we not talk about zat?" He asked bluntly, waving his arm in dismissal. "I am trying to be as ignorant as possible. But I am succeeding in daddy part. Fyodor is turning four on Christmas day and I am actually zinking of giving him big birthday."

Leon smiled at that. At least someone was blending in quite well. "How many kids?"

Vlad seemed to brighten up with that question. "Two. Gala, oldest. She is seventeen and big delinquent. Andres has had her arrested twice. First time for shoplifting and second time for being caught out of school. It has been almost one week and Andres wants to shoot her head off."

"She must be trouble."

"She is trouble. Be happy none of your kids pisses you off like zat."

Leon scoffed, running a hand through his brown hair. "Oh don't count me lucky. Stuart is the Gala in my family."

"Da!" His grin widened. "I knew he would be upryamyy muzh. He could not relax and I knew zen he would be trouble."

"He would be what?"

"Sorry. I meant stubborn husband. I miss speaking in my language. More comfortable and I do not have to zink of the proper word to use. And my accent fits better with it."

"You don't have to tell me twice. But your English is quite good, safe from some few pronunciation."

"Try not to correct me. I hate it so much." He groaned then glanced at his phone in his hand. Vlad rolled his eyes at what his saw then stood up straight. "I guess zis is as long as I can stay. Work calls."

"At least you go to work. If I couldn't work from home I probably would be fired."

Vlad chuckled as he started for his door. "I wish I could. Everyone makes fun of my accent in work. You should drop by sometime."

"I will." He smiled at him, walking up to the car after Vlad had entered the car.

Vlad nodded then started up the car. "Please do. And about leaving town, do not. Get to see things from Stuart's point of view. Zere has to be a reason he is like zat. If you find it out, maybe, just maybe, he might be a little less annoying." He winked at him but didn't let Leon respond before reversing and speeding away.

He was definitely in a hurry.

Sighing, Leon decided to take Vlad's advice and head home when he saw another car approach. He would have ignored it and entered his car but the person in the car had him frozen in his spot.

     Stuart parked the car right behind his then came out. "What the fuck, Leon?"

How did Leon know that would be the first thing he would have said? Shaking his head, he tried to put into play the advice as Stuart stormed towards him.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I was following this bird and got carried away. Sorry. Totally my fault." He shrugged.

Stuart scoffed in disbelief. "You think this is funny? We just got a week extra in this goddamn place because your stupid ass crossed the line."

"What?!"

___________________
Hehe...

🌸Happy New Year people🌸

It's still first here so I'm not late *eye roll*
Anyways, this is my new year gift to you. I'm such a generous person *smug smile*
So, I'm currently having writer's block but relax, it only takes me two months to get my shit together. JK.
The writer's block shit is real though.

Anyways, I hope you all had fun and this chapter is dedicated to those of y'all whose birthday was and is between 30th to 2nd. 🌺