Notes: Disclaimer is as of the first chapter.

Author Notes: I am a bit of a literature buff...haha, so I hope you don't mind the references to the books. Some quotations from books are just so appropriate for Kai (as you will see later with Romero) that I couldn't pass of the chance to take a stab at it. And if Tyson seems OOC-ish, it is simply because he has grown up somewhat. I only hope he does not seem too unfamiliar. :D

Warnings: A long chapter?


Chapter 3: A Re-meeting in the Rain and an Unforeseen Dinner


Rain came down in torrents as Kai watched with stony-faced dismay from the entrance of the school building. Tala and Bryan had dorm rooms as their homes were far away from the school, and they didn't have umbrellas to loan him. Well, Bryan confessed that he had a raincoat, but it was yellow and horribly conspicuous and the last thing Kai wanted was to be so grotesquely conspicuous. Max's dad came to pick him up and Max had offered both Ray and his friend, Kai, a ride home. Kai had declined because he doubted he wanted to get into Ray's moment and he had thought he could call his chauffer on occasions like this. (He usually walked home because it was nicer that way.) He never expected his cell phone battery to go flat on him the way it did.

So he could wait it out in Tala's or Bryan's room (which he honestly wasn't keen on doing then), wait it out himself at the school entrance, or simply walk home in the rain. He opted for the last option. He had only one foot forward and head not even out in the pattering rain when a blue umbrella opened beside him and came over his head. Surprised he turned to see, lo and behold, THE Tyson Granger standing beside him, smiling up at the older boy as if it was the most natural thing to do. If there were some things that didn't change, it was the way Tyson tended to smile so disarmingly at people and the fact that Tyson was still a little bit shorter than himself.

"You wanna share an umbrella?" his younger classmate asked.

Kai stared down at him. This was the first time Tyson talked to him since they started school. It came as a surprise...and oddly, not an unpleasant one. A part of Kai expected the younger guy to talk to him eventually. Perhaps, and this he would never admit, he had been waiting for it to happen. Waited for so long that when it happened, right then with the offer of an umbrella shared, he had not the words for the occasion. Turning away, Kai gave a small nod and they started walking, sharing what bit of shelter the umbrella could provide for the two of them.

After a while, Kai quietly took hold of the umbrella from Tyson, careful for some reason to not brush his hand against the other guy's.

"I'm taller, it's easier if I hold it," was his nonchalant answer to the questions on the other one's expression.

A light punch came down on his shoulder, but Kai, strangely expecting that, didn't flinch.

"I'm only just a little shorter than you and you are already blowing your trumpet about it!" Tyson shouted into his ear.

This is something familiar, Kai found himself thinking with some degree of mirth.

Out loud, he said, "I thought you forgot who I was, Granger."

The rain came down around them as they splashed it out home. The road seemed so familiar then. After their fights, they always walked home like this, oddly contented, feeling little need for conversation. Right then however, some conversation, Kai felt, was due. Haven't they got a lot to pick up from?

Interlacing his fingers behind his head, Tyson replied with a laugh, "How can I forget you, Kai? The guy I always fought with back when we were still in elementary school."

"Then you left after that, without a word," Kai was aware a little too late that he might have sounded hurt then and perhaps accusatory too.

"It was not expected. Suddenly, before I knew anything, I was all packed for the city where I lived with my father and brother for a while. I didn't have time to say goodbye, not even to Gramps," Tyson said, hands still behind his head, leaning back into it as if he was relaxing on a lounge chair. "Hiro thought sophisticated city life would be good for me and there was no arguing with him."

"What happened?"

"I didn't like it there. Dad was always at the university with his research and his books and Hiro with his school. Then Hiro got transferred as you can well see. He's our Physical Ed. teacher," Tyson rolled his eyes as he said this.

Kai smirked. That was true. It had shocked a lot of people to find it out but they were quick to see that Mr. Granger was not one to be nice to anyone during Physical Ed., not even his own brother.

"So you live with your brother now?"

Tyson shook his head.

"He's married now, and besides I miss my grandpa and my adopted younger brother."

"You have an adopted younger brother?" Kai asked. He had remembered the teenager with grey-blue hair who was always telling him off after every fight with Tyson, but he had not remembered an adopted younger brother.

A nod, followed by a grin. "We found him in the jungle, but don't tell him that."

They passed by several houses in silence. Kai scrutinised each one discreetly but failed to remember which one was Tyson's, much to his secret dismay.

In time, Kai asked, "So is it still a long way to your house?"

"We just passed it," Tyson replied casually.

Kai stopped and it took patters of rain on his face for Tyson to realize that Kai had stopped.

"Shouldn't we be going back?" Kai asked. "Why didn't you say that we just passed your house?"

Tyson stared at him as if he had just asked something odd.

"Your mansion is still a long way from here," Tyson reasoned, wine-coloured eyes looking at Kai unfalteringly. "I thought I would walk you home and then retrace my steps back to mine."

Kai's eyes narrowed as he spoke, "I don't need anyone walking me home."

"But you need the umbrella. I couldn't possibly let you walk in the rain."

Kai blinked, feeling a certain jolt in him. No one in his life ever bothered whether he walked in the rain or not. If he said he wanted to walk in the rain, everyone, even Tala, Bryan, and Ray would let him go with it. Here was someone who was overly concerned about him having some way to go home without getting wet, even if it meant going out of his way to ensure it. Kai had no doubt that this was the young man who had grown from the boy he used to know. Still, it was all bloody ridiculous.

Looking away, Kai replied tersely, "You can loan it to me, moron."

"Okay," Tyson said with a shrug, wheeling around to start walking back to his house. Kai followed suit. A part of him pounded himself in his face. He hated to admit that he wanted the bluenette to walk him home, hated that he actually desired this young man's company.

"So, who's home?" he heard Tyson ask, piercing his way into Kai's thoughts.

"Only the servants."

"Dinner?"

"Wha—" Kai turned a slightly shocked expression to his companion.

"Dinner," Tyson emphasized. "You're eating dinner alone?"

"Pretty much," he growled. He was, admittedly a little angry with himself for assuming for a fraction of a second that Tyson was inviting him to dinner.

"Say, if that's the case," Tyson began. "Would you like to have dinner with my family tonight? That is if you don't mind not eating the cuisine you are always used to."

Kai never understood how Tyson could throw him all these curveballs and so naturally too. One moment he thought Tyson was inviting him to dinner, and then he thought he had thought wrong...only to have it turn out true.

"I'm sure grandpa will be okay with it," Tyson went on, looking back at Kai who was staring at him. Grinning, he added, "Come on! It's been a long time, Kai!"

Kai debated inwardly, only debating proved useless. It didn't take much thought for him to pick up the gait, umbrella in hand, once more splashing in the rain, and walk with Tyson back to his house which they had casually passed before.

"When you started school," Kai began out of the blue when they had walked some distance in silence. He surprised himself in even asking it. "What took you so long to talk to me, knowing who I am..."

Tyson laughed a little at this and did not move to answer for some time. Kai stole a furtive glance at his companion. He noticed that Tyson had his ears pierced. On the ear facing Kai, there were two black studs and Kai remembered seeing that exact number on the other ear too. Two piercings in each ear, Kai mused. This boy was even wilder than himself for he only had one ear pierced with one earring hole. Gone indeed was the boy who used to wear shorts and long, white socks.

"I don't know," Tyson said, looking up at the overcast sky, his hands once more behind his head. "I guess I was afraid that you've changed...what with the friends you have now. You used to be such a loner."

Kai didn't say that Tyson perhaps had something to do with his change. Indeed, he shunned the company of people in the past. It took the eagerness of a young boy, day after day of a round at the playgrounds, and a plate of dirt to show him that having people in your life was not a bad thing at all. Kai allowed himself a small, furtive smile. Thus, there were Ray, Tala, and Bryan.

Kai climbed up the short set of steps to a sort of open air verandah. The wooden floor was slick with rain, yet Tyson closed his umbrella, sprinkling more water onto it. He pushed open a door and dropped the umbrella into a basket already filled with umbrellas. Kai suddenly felt nervous as he stepped into the house. Apart from Tala's and Bryan's dorm, their respective homes and Ray's for the occasional events like a movie night or game marathons, he had never been to anyone's house for something as intimate as a casual dinner. He had never met Tyson's grandfather before, and the whole idea of a grandfather brought to his mind the image of his own, cold, rigid, and power hungry one. His hand automatically went to his tie and he found himself straightening it as if he was going to meet his future in-laws. The idea snapped him to his senses and he whipped his hand away.

Tyson discarded his wet shoes and stepped barefooted up onto the raised area of the main house.

"You can use those slippers if you are uncomfortable going around barefooted. They are for guests," he heard Tyson tell him as he proceeded to remove his own shoes. "But you can go barefooted if you like."

Kai started at the unfamiliar casualness of Tyson's household. It had nothing of the protocols present in his mansion. He was extremely wary upon entering the house, after choosing to go barefooted. He had never walked around barefooted in his own mansion before. The feeling was liberating and almost...amusing.

"Nothing like your mansion I'm sure, but hey, it's home!" Tyson said brightly as they walked down a hallway to a room at the far end.

Looking around, Kai replied involuntarily, "It's cozy."

"Awww..." Tyson began, placing a punch on his arm. "You don't have to try to find anything nice to say to me. Anyway, you can leave your stuff in my room."

At the mention of his room, Tyson pushed open a door to reveal a small but surprisingly tidy bedroom. Kai hesitated stepping into the room...it was such a private domain. In time, he did and carefully placed his bag down on the study table. He noticed that Tyson had a large bookshelf lined on one side of the room, against a far wall. On one level, just above the row of closed cupboards built into the shelf design, were framed pictures of himself, his brother and his father, and more of his grandpa and a red-headed boy Kai couldn't recognize. One had them---the grandpa and the red-headed boy---both grinning into the camera as they squeezed a despairing Tyson between them. There was a rather old picture of a beautiful young woman, whom Kai presumed, from the striking resemblance between her and his younger classmate, to be Tyson's mother, whom Kai knew passed away when Tyson was little. In one corner, he saw an empty glided-edged photo frame.

"Why is this one empty?" he wondered aloud despite himself.

"Wha-? Oh..." Tyson said getting a little embarrassed. "Call me a sentimental idiot, but..."

Kai turned his head a little, feeling suddenly intrigued.

Tyson was scratching the back of his head, a gesture fully familiar to Kai as it dated to way back when they were still children. The former's face was tinged with pink.

"I made this sort of promise to myself..." Tyson began embarrassedly. "That it will remain empty until I find someone I love and whose picture I would put inside so that I can put it beside my mother's...to look at it everyday."

His voice was soft when he said this and it led Kai to think, namely due to a certain mud pie, what a sentimental person Tyson generally was. Auburn eyes returned to the empty photo frame and lingered there before he turned them to the group of odd trinkets arranged neatly in one corner—folded paper stars in a bottle, a heart-shaped tin-box with the words For Tyson written in glow-in-the-dark 3D marker, among other things which Kai abruptly found nauseating. One reason for such nausea being that back in high school, he remembered the notes and chocolates that girls used to slip under his desk and such. He never felt at all inclined to keep them, but then again, none of the girls really bothered to make him anything. Perhaps that was one marked difference between them. Tyson was someone girls would put in the extra effort to make things for. He was not just another pretty face; he had a heart no one else possessed.

Kai felt a sudden prick within him, for reasons unbeknownst to him, but swallowed it down rather angrily and asked with mild disinterest, "So I don't think these are from a girlfriend?"

Tyson laughed and answered dismissively from behind him, "Naaah...admirers from my high school days. I never could tell them that I swung in the other direction, but I kept everything that was given to me because the girls put in a lot of effort to make them."

Point on, thought Kai bitterly, much to his own surprise.

Another realization made Kai whip his head around to look at the younger guy. Something Tyson had said about swinging... But before he could say anything, the door to the room burst open and two viciously roaring figures suddenly crashed into the bedroom and jumped Tyson backwards onto the bed.

Kai, despite himself, was startled backwards himself. A sprightly elderly man and a boy, younger than Tyson, with fiery red hair---the duo from the glomping picture---bent over Tyson laughing. Tyson's face was a real study as he peered up at them from where he lay and Kai actually had to take a moment to still his rapidly beating heart. Even he, taught to be prepared for anything, was not expecting that.

Sitting up, Tyson cried out angrily, "Why do you two have to keep doing that each time I get home?"

The red-headed boy only laughed while the elder gentleman said, jabbing Tyson playfully in the ribs, "You should have been more prepared ma' boy! Daichi here and I have been waiting all day to do that."

"Yeah!" the said Daichi exclaimed, in a loud, scratchy voice. "What took you so long to get back?"

"I had sports trials remember?" Tyson shouted back.

Kai dipped a pinky into one ear and twisted it a little. This was obviously a family of shouters and screamers, Kai thought. At least, this side of the family. From his Physical Ed. periods with the junior, junior Mr. Granger, Tyson's brother was a lot quieter...though more annoying and something of a dungeon overlord.

"Well did ya make it, boy?" Grandpa asked.

"Did ya? Did ya?" Daichi parroted, bouncing up and down on the bed.

Beaming, Tyson replied, "The results are not out yet, but I was the fastest guy today!"

There was another racket—Grandpa was viciously giving Tyson a noogie, Tyson was protesting against the noogie, and Daichi was announcing rather redundantly that he would be the fastest in the school if only he was old enough to be going to the college and that Tyson could easily be eating his dirt.

Everyone was talking at once. Kai leaned against the bookshelf, crossed his arms, and watched them mildly. Yup, it definitely was a family of shouters and screamers. It was different from his mansion where every footstep echoed and where each echo soon became a friend. Servants darted away into the shadows once you did not need them, the ceilings were unnecessarily high, and hallways stretched for too long.

Tyson's house was cozy indeed.

"Will you stop?" Tyson cried out. "We have a guest today!"

With that, he indicated Kai who was standing; hiding everything felt with practiced nonchalance.

Daichi took him by surprise though. The short red-head rushed up to him and pointed an accusing finger at the dual-haired young man.

"You! Who are you and state your purpose here in Port Royale!" A while later he added, "And no lies!"

Kai stared down at the finger which was almost jabbing him in the face, taken completely aback, not knowing exactly by what—the finger, the sudden turn on him by the red-head terror, or the fact that the boy had uttered what was an appropriate adaptation of the lines from Pirates of the Caribbean.

"Daichi! Don't be rude! And have you been watching that movie again?" Tyson cut in between them, pushing the finger and the hand it was attached to, down. "Anyway, I invited him over for dinner!"

"Dinner eh?" Grandpa remarked, coming up to Kai in record speed before peering at him all too interestedly. "Been a long time since we had guests."

Holding out a hand, he added with a grin, "I'm Tyson's grandfather. You can call me Gramps, or Grandpa, or Dude...anything that suits your fancy."

Tyson rolled his eyes.

"Any friend of Tyson's is welcome here," Grandpa Granger added.

Kai could not help noticing how different Tyson's grandfather was from his own. He took the hand hesitatingly and was rewarded with a vicious shake.

"And I'm Daichi!" the boy screamed directly into his face. "The greatest playground fighter in the whole world."

Placing himself in a battle stance, he continued, "C'mon you with the weird hair, I'll take you on!"

Kai actually contemplated tweaking him with a thumb and finger on the nose, but chose to raise an eyebrow. Perhaps something of Tyson had rubbed off this boy. However, as much as Kai would never admit it to anyone, the only person he considered the greatest playground fighter in the world was Tyson.

"Will you guys leave him alone?" Tyson called out to them. "He's supposed to feel welcome, not scared shitless to come here anymore!"

"And one more thing!" Daichi managed to shout. "Tyson's mine! So hands off, okay?"

A vein in Tyson's temple throbbed as he dislodged Daichi who had by then clung to his waist. He struggled to send the duo out of the room.

"Just get dinner ready, okay? And Daichi let me define 'my brother' again...and it means to help me help Grandpa in the kitchen!"

"But you said something else the other time!"

"Daichi!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh! You don't have to be such a grouch about it," Daichi said and walked out of the room behind Grandpa Granger.

Once the room was vacated by everyone but Kai and himself, Tyson breathed a sigh of relief and turned to face Kai again.

"You have an interesting family," Kai ventured to say. His arms were still crossed but he could not contain his smirk.

"Noisy, you mean," Tyson said, taking off his blazer and proceeding to remove his tie. "There'll be more to come at the dinner table, trust me."

Kai was sure of that, but said nothing. Busy chattering and clanging could be heard from further down in the house. Tyson was by then removed of his tie and blazer. Kai found himself watching, incredibly fascinated as Tyson, perfectly comfortable in his home even with someone in his room, undoing some of his school shirt buttons as he chattered on. Soon, the younger guy turned back to him, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the first few buttons of his shirt undone.

"Hey, if you wanna remove your blazer, feel free to do so," Tyson invited, looking rather intently at the guy leaning against his bookshelf.

Kai started, turned around to face the bookshelf, and proceeded to remove his blazer. He was starting to feel warm. Were his cheeks red? Was that the reason why Tyson had looked at him so intently before? Kai cursed inwardly. Why was this? Why did he feel so...affected?

He almost jumped out of his skin when Tyson came up beside him, his hand shooting out to...

...grab at a book from a shelf. Kai looked again at the bookshelf. Save for the one portion where Tyson apparently displayed all his objects of personal sentiment, the rest of the bookshelf was packed full with books. Kai had to raise an eyebrow at this. There were the school textbooks—the dog-eared ones with the indicator tabs protruding out one side, the ones which were actually read through and studied with: History, Biology; and nice neat ones which looked like they were barely touched: namely Math and Physics—but the rest...were books.

It was a good selection apparently. There was a whole collection of all the Jane Austen's works (Tyson? An Austen fan? Kai wondered inwardly), good ol' Will Shakespeare took up another spot, there was a splattering of classics—Robinson Crusoe, Wuthering Heights, The Count of Monte Cristo included—and more contemporary literature—Midnight's Children by Rushdie, Surfacing by Atwood, and even The Bell Jar by Plath.

"Are these all yours?" Kai asked, his indifference barely concealing his amazement. "Do you even read them?"

"Har har har," Tyson remarked dryly, rolling his eyes. "I have and yes, they are all mine. Some years of painstaking part-time work to earn money to spend on books and of scouring second hand bookshops for good deals. Oh, yeah. I steal some from the school library back in the city too."

"Thieving already?" Kai said, turning full around to look at Tyson with a smirk. "And here I was expecting a selection of comic books."

"Ah hah!" Tyson cried, holding up an index finger in triumph. He knelt at the edge of his bed and bent over it to take something from under it. His shirt hung down as he did so, allowing a glimpse of a lean torso and dark...nipples. Kai had to turn away quickly. Of all things! Why was he noticing that so intensely? All that skin...

Eventually, Tyson straightened up with a box in hand. He opened it to reveal his comic book collection.

"There's still more where these came from," Tyson told his companion, indicating the dark abyss under his bed. "Maybe some day, they would be collector's editions! I can then sell them on e-bay at exorbitant prices!"

Kai raised an eyebrow, but admittedly, the younger guy's goofy enthusiasm was contagious. He found himself chuckling.

Tyson laughed with him as he replaced the box. Straightening up again, he added seriously, "I like comics still, but I like my books better. And I just have this crazy habit of wanting to see them every time I walk into my room."

Perking up he added, "You know those old mansions that have libraries lined floor to ceiling with old leather-bound and linen-bound copies of books, Kai?"

Kai replied with a characteristic, "Hn", though he was actually interested to hear more. There was simply something in the way Tyson was talking about all this; the way his eyes grew large and glowed, and how he sounded like he was putting his all into what he was saying... It was perhaps what drew young Kai to the annoying little boy with the long socks, stupid shorts and the T-shirt with a neck that always looked like he was rubbing his dripping nose on it.

"I've always wanted to see something like that," Tyson finished, leaning back on his arms and staring up at the ceiling dreamily.

Feeling his cheeks suddenly flush, Kai trained his eyes on the books once more.

"Strange thing for a man to fantasize," he said. "Can't do anything to that."

Kai sensed a pillow being thrown his way and reached out a hand to his side to expertly catch it. Spinning around again, he tossed it back from whence it came.

"Now tell me, alien intruder," Kai said menacingly. "What have you done to the real Tyson?"

"Icy Kai Hiwatari finally learnt to tell a joke?" Tyson questioned quirking an eyebrow. "Anyway, if you're wondering how I came to like books so much...well I had to take literature classes back in the city high school I went to, and I fell in love with it, not to mention aced it."

Staring down at the book he just pulled out, he said quietly, "A lot can be said through literature."

"You've changed," Kai observed.

Tyson looked up, surprised, then grinned.

"I think it's called 'maturity', Kai. I cannot keep fooling around forever you know."

"A little fooling around is okay."

Tyson stared at him wide-eyed for a while and then broke into another grin. "If you miss me, just say so, Kai!"

"Never gonna happen," replied Kai.

"Anyway, what is that book?" he asked as Tyson's good-natured laughter died down and after he had neatly dodged another pillow thrown his way without bothering to catch it.

"For our Literature class this coming Friday. I'm psyched! It's a classic...like reeeeally classic. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."

Kai groaned a little. He had clean forgotten about the week's reading. Why had he allowed himself, (him, Kai!) to be led by Tala into taking up the class during the subject registration exercise? The Literature teacher, a flamboyant man with melancholy blonde hair tied back into a shaggy ponytail, who told everyone to call him Romero, was a nut! Outside of class and in the staff offices, he was always languid and lethargic. In class, however, he read off passages with vicious energy as he marched up and down the aisles.

You couldn't sleep in his class because he would suddenly stop at your desk, seemingly randomly (which Kai was beginning to feel was not the case at all because Romero always had a knack for stopping at the desks of those who were not paying attention), and roar a line in your face. Just the other day, they were reading Walden by Henry Thoreau, and Romero had stopped by Kai's desk, when Kai was least alert, and groaned, yes groaned, in his face:

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."

Worse still, Romero asked Kai, "Now, Mr. Hiwatari, what is the significance of this line?" –with a discreet glance at the corner where Kai's eyes had only been before he was interrupted—"if you don't mind sharing."

Of course, Kai did not know the significance of the line because (1) he had found the book so utterly boring that he gave up after page ten and (2) he had been staring at Tyson as the younger boy chewed the end of his pen in perusal of the open page before him. So, Kai found himself having to read the rest of the chosen passage in front of the class as punishment for not attempting his reading before class.

From up front, he could see Bryan pretending to be into his reading to avoid being picked on, Tala concentrating for real on the book and taking notes in the blank margins of the printed pages. Ray was looking furtively over his book at Max who was, like Bryan, pretending to read. Kai had not dared look over at one particular corner of the room where he knew a certain bluenette sat.

Right then the bluenette was standing before him, so close that Kai could detect the faint hint of a scent about him. Kai peered down at the open face, the face where he knew, every emotion could be read. However, right then, at the age this bluenette was, Kai read nothing in the face. In his own person, however, strange emotions and sensations were roiling. He could not pinpoint what they were, where they came from, or what was their source. All he knew for sure was that Tyson was saying something that sounded like:

"Dinner's ready. You're coming right?"

And why was he holding on to that hopefulness he heard in the younger guy's voice?

Crossing his arms nonchalantly, Kai replied, "Yeah, I'm coming."

The smile that was thrown at him next almost disarmed him. He steeled himself and walked out of the room behind Tyson.


Dinner was indeed a noisy affair. A VERY noisy affair. However, there were times during the meal when he found his eyes meeting Tyson's as the midnight-haired persona looked at Kai over all the ruckus of food snatching and talking with mouths full (namely Daichi and his abhorrent table manners), and Tyson would smile. Kai would only half-smirk in reply before turning this attention to his food.

Kai stepped out into dark night after dinner and already, the gloom and silence was getting to him. It was strange how a few hours in the Granger household could make the quiet and solitude just beyond its threshold so alien. Dinner had been...interesting. He had even had a short staring match with Daichi over who would get the last salted fish. After such an experience, he doubted he could go back to his usual dinner at the mansion, sitting at one end of a long, long table alone, the only sounds in the dining room being the clink of his silverware against the porcelain plate. The serving person would be waiting like a silent shadow, slinking forward should he want anything. It was so different from the 'help yourself' way in the Granger household, where you reach out and grab whatever dish you want. Kai had to admit that it gave him an appetite.

He had thanked the elder Granger, earning himself a "come anytime you please, ma' boy", before he stepped out. Slinging his bag across his body, he started to walk out of the grounds, hands shoved into the pockets of his school blazer.

The sound of running feet behind him stopped his own. It was oddly surreal how those footsteps held in them a warmth Kai rarely ever felt. He turned on his heels to see Tyson running towards him from the house. Had Kai forgotten something?

"Hey!" Tyson cried as he came to a halt in front of the taller young man. "I'll walk you to the gate."

"I don't need anyone walking me anywhere," Kai drawled almost against his will.

"Sure, Miss Independent," Tyson answered with a grin and they started walking slowly.

Once outside, they stood facing each other in silence for a while, with Tyson smiling up at Kai.

"Somebody has grown more handsome over the years," Tyson said finally in a voice laced with amusement.

Kai felt his cheek flush and was glad for the bare bit of twilight that existed around them. This stretch of street was probably the worst lit in the whole district, not that Kai was complaining.

"Whatever," was all the reply he could muster.

"Thanks for staying over for dinner. It was great catching up with you, Kai!"

"Yeah, you too." It surprised the both of them since it came from Kai, but Tyson only ended up laughing a little.

"See you tomorrow then!"

With that, Kai nodded and turned away before heading down the street to his home. He could feel Tyson watching him go, most likely with a smile on those lips, the sight of which sometimes disconcerted him in so many odd ways. Kai kept walking slowly until he heard the door of the tall gate close and latch.

At the sound, he stopped and turned to gaze at the house.


Next Chapter: Mud Pie