Worthless

'What an ugly mutt you are.' 

'Keep on biting unless you want to be on muzzle time out.' 

'Once a mutt, always a mutt.'

'Didn't you know it just bit its trainer's ear off?' 

'Ya' kidding right?' 

'No shit. Bet you never saw the blood in there. It's horrible.' 

'Who cares, I'm still betting on that mad dog, it's my lucky charm!' 

"--Lynn? Lynnnn? 

SLAP!

"..."

"!!!"

"Uncle?" 

"Hey, hey, you okay?" 

Lynn froze at Derek's words of concern. His breath was ragged and his eyes finally flickered back on focus. The swaying of the carriage had stopped, indicating that they had arrived. 

His brown eyes slowly moved towards Derek. Despite looking so worried, a large red handprint had marked his handsome features and that brought the attention back to his stinging hand. 

"Ah~ I shouldn't have touched you so suddenly," Derek rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, his other hand palm his red stinging cheek.. "But we have arrived…? And you're zoning out." 

Lynn wanted to open his mouth to apologize. That must have hurt based on how red it was. 

"Uncle Lynn! Is your hand okay?" The young man of Rodericks, who had previously set one foot down the carriage, sprung back up and clutched Lynn's bruised hand. "It must have hurt! Old man, apologize! Who told you to have a brick as your head?" 

"...Perish, you little shit." Derek muttered under his breath. 

As ignoring his father became a natural habit, Zeke soothed his uncle's hand. "What's wrong with you, uncle? It's rare for you to space out like this. It seems even a perfectionist has its flaws, eh?" 

Lynn straightened his back, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. Flaws, huh? What a joke. For years he had tried to mend himself to be flawless but a damage good was always a damage good. 

[[A/N: Guess you all now know why the title is "WORTHLESS", right? *wink wink*]] 

"Get away from him, you little-- Go do your homework or something! To think that I actually saved you from the clutches of that marriage, I should have let you rot in there!" 

"Don't put all the blame on me, you are also terrified that he might leech you off your precious money." 

"Preposterous!" 

Lynn had managed to calm his emotions, but it couldn't be said the same for the other two. Both Rodericks were on each other's face and pulling apart one another's cheeks. In the gray-haired butler's eyes, they resembled an old bear play fighting with it's cub. 

The image brought a chuckle out of Lynn as he raised his hand to cover his mouth, stifling the laugh. 

'What am I thinking?' 

'Why did I even think of considering the nonsense he spouted?' 

'I'm so stupid.' 

A sad smile adorned his face. Thinking that he had been mellowing far too long and the two bears weren't showing any sign of stopping, Lynn made a move to stand, wanting to push those two out of the stuffy carriage; coincidently the movement caused something thin and sharp poking his ċhėst. 

Blinking, Lynn sat back at the edge of the seat and pulled out the offensive item from his suit. 

'Ah, right. The snapshots… I need to inform Derek.' 

"--Insolent punk! I am going to confiscate all the chocolate you keep under your bed!" 

'Ah, How the hell did the conversation turn to this? Food? How much more childish can they be?' Lynn sighed fondly. 

Looked like he wasn't getting out of the carriage anytime soon. He took the time to examine the snapshots and frowned. They really had been played. Being led by the nose like a dumb bull. 

"What the fuċk--? How did you know about that?" Zeke's voice sounded horrified. 

"Lynn told me about it!" 

"Oi, don't drag me into your family squabbles." Lynn muttered from the side. 

"You are part of this fuċkɨnġ family!" Both of them glowered at him. 

Lynn pouted and ducked his head so they wouldn't see his amusing smile, but inside, his heart warmed uncontrollably. 

XXX

Derek threw the snapshots onto his working desk before leaning his back against it. Inside, was the man they had been searching for the past months. 

Bloodied. Crushed. Unstructured bones. Mutilated. Dislocated jaw. Slitted throat. 

It was gruesome. Derek had to admit it. 

Such pictures shouldn't be captured so vividly. Yet the one who snapped those took different angles as if there shouldn't be anything that missed. Whether he was mocking him by doing this purposely or just for his self-satisfaction, Derek didn't want to know about it. 

"Check the dates." Lynn pointed out. 

"Huh? I did…" Derek took the snapshots back up and flipped them. 'Fuck.' 

Headache suddenly seemed like a friendly fiend. Rubbing didn't do its job to chase it away. In the end, he just resigned to his fate and sighed. 

"Zion was the one that gave you these?" Derek couldn't help but ask even though he already knew the answer to it. 

"Yes." 

"Then?" 

"...Then what?" 

Derek wanted to click his tongue in annoyance, fortunately, he had more than enough endurance and held back. Instead of beating around the bush, he went straight to the point. "Besides these, what else?"

Lynn merely tilted his head as if he was confused. As much as how cute he looked that way, Derek couldn't fathom any strength to coo at it. On the contrary, he felt anger bubbling. 

The first time Zion came, he set off a lot of alarms in Derek's mind, which made sense. This man suddenly came saying he was sent by the Queen herself. Normally, the Queen only gave instructions through letters, no more than that. 

A man claiming to be sent by the Queen sounded fishy. However, like a devil in disguise, he smiled through their weary gazes and immediately flashed the royal badge, which erased all lingering suspicions. 

All was well, they welcomed him, doing the proper procedure of shaking hands until he finally noticed how Lynn's hand was trembling furiously when it was almost his turn. 

His lips might have curved upwards but the smile never reached his eyes.. And it somehow gave Derek the impression that Zion and Lynn had known each other way before this.