AN: Before the chapter starts I wanna thank those two lovely people here for leaving me a comment! :) Kobella & FlygonWriter64!

Music tip:
Guy Sebastian - Beg
youtube: watch?v=EyFsV8LbJdI

Lovers of Freedom

Chapter 19:
No Backdown

It was easy.
Every step he took, every smile he forced onto his face, every happy wave of his trembling hand.
It was easy to revert back to his old ways.

And no one noticed anything.
Mitch felt relegated to the times after the breakup of Team Crafted. The thought of admitting his mistake, to show his hurt feelings and the self-loathing for destroying what he and his friends had tried to protect so dearly had been unfeasible for him back then. And so he had started to pretend to be the usual carefree guy, who didn't give a crap about the dark side of his past and how all of it affected those around him.

He felt safe and secure behind the wall he had built inside of his troubled mind and it was too easy to hide from Murphy, his uncontrollable schemes and the fear. It was better this way, wasn't it? To fight against the evil in the form of their now official mentor would only get him into even more trouble. He couldn't risk his family's wellbeing and Jerome's, because Mitch wasn't sure what Murphy would be capable of once he learned of his best friend knowing everything.

It was a risk he wasn't willing to take at the moment.
To hell with all the worries and tears and the desperation. He was sick of it and pretending to be alright was helping him to ignore what was wrong as well.

"Are you feeling any better?"
A soft voice to his left brought Mitch back to reality and with a frown on his face he looked to his left. Jerome was sitting on the unoccupied seat of the private airplane, with which they were brought to the first official event about Minecraft after Microsoft had taken over. Mitch had put his feet up on the opposite seat in the luxury interior of the plane, because originally the young Canadian had planned on getting some sleep after the take-off in LA this morning.

His mind had kept him from doing so due to the gloomy thoughts, which had returned with full force after he had realized what had happened the night before. Mitch had kissed Adam. Multiple times. How in the world had he allowed himself doing something so stupid?! Some romantic emotions with Adam of all people was the last thing he needed to deal with. For the nth times he cursed the strong impact alcohol had on him and then slightly raised the dark sunglasses with his left hand to look at the waiting American.

"Still like shit."

"You want some pills for the headache?"

"Nah, those aren't that bad. I'm just feeling sick all the time. Being in a plane doesn't really help," he replied quietly and tried to smile, because he was thankful for Jerome still being worried about him, even though he had tried to stop the hardheaded Canadian from drinking too much.

"Alright," Jerome answered, but just as he wanted to stand up to leave him alone again, he suddenly sat back down and leaned towards him. "So… do you want to talk about what had happened between-"
He wasn't even able to finish his sentence, because Mitch rose abruptly from his seat, shot a quick "I'm sick!" in his direction and then made a bolt for the small bathroom in the back of the plane.

As soon as he had closed the door behind him, he slid down the door and sighed deeply. Why couldn't Jerome let certain topics rest for just a little amount of time? The least Mitch wanted to do right now was to think about why he had kissed the person he had never wanted to see again in his life just a few weeks ago.

All that he had wanted was to get back what he had lost all those months ago.
His friends, Team Crafted and a carefree time recording videos.

How did it end this way?

A knocking sound from the other side of the door made Mitch flinch.
"Are you alright?"
It was Adam. The last person he wanted to talk to right now.

"I'm fine," he reluctantly muttered and hid his face in his crossed arms on his bent knees. "Just feeling sick."

"Doesn't sound like it."

"Leave me alone, Adam," he sighed, but Adam stayed in front of the door without leaving him alone. "Can't do that, sorry. I really want to talk to you about what happened, because I get the impression that you have been avoiding me the whole day."
From the sound of Adam's voice Mitch could tell that he sat down on the floor as well. He was still able to understand his voice, even though he obviously tried to be quiet so they weren't overheard.

"I'm avoiding everyone right now, if you didn't notice," Mitch finally answered but made no move to open the door for Adam. It didn't stop him from continuing the conversation though.

"I did… and I believe it's not only because of you not feeling well."

"I'm not that upset with what happened in the club, so can we just forget it and-"

"No, I know. I think it has something to do with Murphy instead."

Mitch didn't reply.
How could he, when Adam was so damn close to the truth?
Was it so obvious? Mitch had tried to behave as normal as possible, when Murphy had entered the plane together with the whole team this morning, but he knew that he hadn't been very successful with hiding the weary glances into his direction every once in a while. The sunglasses could only hide so much.

"I know there's something going on between the two of you. Please talk to me, Mitch. It's obvious that it's wearing you down more and more."

"Why do you care?" Mitch replied heatedly and tried desperately to think of something to get to another topic. He wasn't willing to talk to Jerome about what Murphy was doing to him, so how could he bring himself to be honest to Adam of all people?
Not even his own family knew what was going on at the moment.

"Idiot. I told you over and over again that I promised you to not be an asshole any longer. In the past weeks I have tried my best to be nice to you, but you just kept pushing me away. I can only do so much Mitch, because I need your support as well in this matter. Maybe you don't care about it, but I want us to be friends again. And not only while we're drunk, you know?"

Adam's little rant had made an impression on Mitch and for several seconds he stayed quiet and thought about what to say. Since the mess with Murphy had started, Mitch hadn't thought about their damaged relationship anymore, even though it had been on his mind from Murphy's first phone call on.

"I do."

"What?"

"I do care about us being friends again, Adam. I… Fuck, I just want all of this to work out, but the longer this goes on, the more I seem to screw everything up," he desperately whispered and buried his head in his arms again. He shouldn't tell Adam all these things, especially when Murphy was in the plane with them.
The thought made him close up immediately.

"As far as I know you didn't screw up anything," Adam tried to comfort him, but Mitch replied with a humorless and bitter laugh, "You have no idea."

"Then tell me about it."

"…our fight. The reason for it. Don't tell me I haven't messed up royally back then, Adam."
He didn't reply.
Instead Mitch could hear him sigh, before he decided to say, "I'm to blame as well, Mitch. I guess we both messed up, didn't we?"

The answer was obvious.
Mitch raised his head to lean it against the door to look at the ceiling of the small cabin.
"What would have happened to us if we had stayed together as a group?"

"Are you referring to the kiss yesterday?"

"No. I mean… maybe. I don't know. To be honest I still have no clue how it happened. Sure, there was the alcohol, we were both drunk and needed something like that, but… don't get me wrong, but it's not like we're very close right now."

Adam's voice changed, as he replied nearly instantly. It was the topic he had wanted to discuss the whole day with Mitch, so it wasn't surprising for the Canadian that he sounded relieved, but as confused as Mitch felt at the same time.
"That's what I've been thinking about as well. I just… can I be honest with you?"

"Go ahead."

"I liked it, hands down. It felt so good to just be wanted like that again, after what happened with Alesa and me, you know? I'm nowhere close to finding someone I wanna love again, but I really needed that. So… thank you."

Despite the precarious topic they were talking about Mitch had to smile. Adam's words were unmistakable and feelings were suddenly prompted that he tried to bury as fast as they had appeared.
"So we can agree on it being nothing serious?"

"Definitely. Can we agree on trying to be friends again?"

"Definitely."
A few moments later Mitch decided to get up again and opened the door. Adam was standing up as well and just smiled at him confidently. He looked so content, grateful and happy that Mitch unconsciously stopped for a short second, before he got over his reluctance and simply hugged the other boy.

"You're done being sick?"

"I actually am, but I guess it has just gotten a little bit better thanks to you."

"I'm glad I could be of help to you then. Come on, let's get back to the others, we're landing soon."
And without hesitating Adam grabbed his hand and pulled the blushing Canadian with him to two free seats. He wasn't able to ignore the fluttering feeling in his stomach, but he ignored it again as he had done when Adam had admitted those sweet, sweet words to him.

Nothing serious.
Just friends.

Right?