Chapter 01
About a month has passed since Kaito's dispute with his family.
Of course, the Shion family had returned to normal a week after the incident (rather, returned to whatever normal was to them, as they were a bunch quite out of the ordinary). Maybe, as Len did perhaps, this was merely the way they dealt with things: Choosing to not acknowledge them. None of them bothered to shield Kaito from the harsh words anyone spewed in favour of looking the other way. As much as the next guy, Len accepted the fact that it did absolutely nothing to baby the blue-headed teen, but it was getting ridiculous in his opinion. Sullen glances shifted from seldom to regular, forced laughter at simple jokes and playful banter every time the subject seemingly came to mind.
He knew from the first moment when the blue boy, who had made it a habit to keep Len at his house during the weekends when family was away, woke him from a rusty dream with persistent shaking and a few whimpers here and there. Len felt utterly helpless, and this was not an emotion he dealt well with. Terrified noises soon plagued the room and the most he could do was wrap an arm possessively around the taller's waist and pull him close while the taciturn man burrowed his head into the other's chest and resumed sleeping peacefully, warmly. Kaito, too, ignored the problem and acted like it had never happened the next morning.
Your middle name had to have been Stupid if you couldn't pick up that there was a serious problem.
Subtle flinches at the passive yet harsh comments thrown his way by family members, the little shifts to glance away when being spoken to sternly. Being jumpy around larger groups of people. It was if he had grown scared of the world in the last month.
He exhibited signs of being bullied.
In the evening they had alone together, Len made the comment that had bothered him for a while. It caught his partner off guard, and the determined glow in his hues had Kaito dropping his ice cream straight into his lap. He stood up abruptly, cursing under his breath as the cold treat melted quickly into his jeans and a little on his shirt, trying to pick up the remnants and rush into the kitchen to save the rest of the living room from a sticky disaster. Kaito heated up red as a fire hydrant when Len laughed, following after him into the kitchen.
"So?" Pressed the blonde, sliding into a chair, eyes working stealthily up and down the larger frame that dampened a towel to wipe away the mess from his shirt.
"So what?" A nervous bite at a plump lower lip, "I don't know where you got that idea from, of course I'm not being bullied." There was a pause, the blotchy flush fading gradually from his pale face. "They're my family, for starters."
The argument was slick as sand. It didn't take much to disprove his reasoning, the excuse so full of flaws that there were too many to count. Of course, accompanying the blatant lie was Kaito's lax posture. It remained easy to read, the refusal to look Len in the eye telling him Kaito felt like a mouse, caught in the corner, and the boy played the role of the ferocious feline charging to devour him. The man twiddled his thumbs, burning friction holes into the towel. With each rub he could feel the anger of Ms. Shion, somewhere, steadily rising as the safety of her property declined. The elder's visage was lowered so Len could not see past the barrier of hair, but the features of a stoic face came to sight. His shoulders dropped and gave off a sombre aura. Kaito couldn't lie for the life of him.
Taking the worried cloth from the other's grasp, Len began to wipe off the remains of the offending treat from Kaito's shirt. It didn't have much an effect on brightening the grim mood, but in kneeling down near the elder's crotch with a cheeky grin plastered from ear to ear and wiping away the stain from the jeans he succeeded in bringing a new splash of colour to those fading pink cheeks. Sucking his bottom lip into his mouth innocently, he finished one pant leg then the other, wiping his own hands off as he stood, before tossing the rag into the sink.
It did nothing to push the truth out of Kaito.
"I got it, you don't have to say." He placed a hand on the shoulder of the generically confused senior. "Just remember, I'm here for you." Steady, long fingers encompassed the younger's hold, pulling it away in favour of twining their grips together.
"I'm thankful." Kaito mentioned, sheepishly grinning down at Len, who seemed to only fall deeper into infatuation with the individual before him once again.
a/n: well i think i'll try and update on saturdays
this is a very very very loose interpretation of a compilation of vanan'ice songs
i highly recommend looking into vanan'ice music stuff if you don't know anything about them because my life p much revolves around them
this is for u yuki
a weird first chapter
the rest will be longer by far i promise
