Yet another…
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The feeling of victory rides with me all the way home from the hospital, and never once does my hand let go of Kevin's. With Mariah's help and Kevin's awe-inspiring powers of persuasion, Lee said he could keep staying with us. Maybe not indefinitely, but for the time being. And even though I did nothing to contribute to this turn of events, I feel like it was all because of me that it worked out this way.
Tala has insisted that we take the elevator, inspired by the doctor's advice that Kevin rest. It's just the three of us, since Bryan and Spencer booked it to go food shopping. Apparently, no one thought to do it while Kevin was in the hospital, and we were running low to begin with. Despite the hunger mounting in my gut, I refuse to let it get me down. I mean, he's here. He's okay, and still holding my hand, and whenever I look at him he smiles. I think Tala is going to be sick.
With a reassuring 'ding', the elevator doors slide open and Tala makes a point of shoving us out. "Okay, now you," he says, placing a hand on Kevin's shoulder in a nonchalant way, "get to take a nap."
"Whee," Kevin mutters, glancing ahead down the hallway. He blinks in surprise at something he sees, but before I can look Tala claps a hand on my shoulder with much less care.
"And you get to do all the goddamn dishes you cheated your way out of the other day-"
"Oh my god."
We both stop, because Kevin has stopped. He's staring ahead, wide eyed, and after we both look at him, we turn our eyes in the same direction.
The door to the flat is off it's hinges, lying in the middle of the hallway. There are a few muddy bootprints as if someone had to try a few times to kick it down. The lock, that Bryan had spent all that time installing, has been strung up in the empty doorway by what looks like some sort of tiny noose (for all those mice-lynching occasions, obviously,) and there's a note taped to it.
Tala is the first to react. He pushes Kevin and I behind him and shushes us before starting slowly toward the door. The silence screeches in my ears as I take it upon myself to pull Kevin farther from the door, around me - two human shields are better than one, after all. He doesn't protest, and instead looks over his shoulder out of growing paranoia.
Tala has already slid around the corner and gone to check out the apartment. We stay there for a few long, terrifying minutes, waiting. Kevin's hands are clasping my right one, and he's slowly but surely pressing into my chest. I wrap my free arm over his shoulders and try to hug him, but I'm not sure it's making a difference.
"Ian," Tala says from the doorway. His voice is almost stoic, but I can hear the concern. Kevin reacts faster than me and bolts toward the door, tugging me after him. We stop, the lock dangling in the middle of us all. Our eyes are glued to the thing, bent in a sort of smooshed way. It's quite possible that Kevin is breaking my hand with that grip of his.
"What does it say?" he whispers, mostly to Tala, because the note is facing him. I can see just a little of it, but not much.
Tala is very quiet. His face is set on some indistinguishable emotion, but I think it's something close to... tired anger? Maybe?
His eyes drop down to look at Kevin, who leans toward me uneasily. "What?" he asks again, his shoulders slowly rising up as his head sinks down a bit. Tala releases a long, silent breath.
"He's challenged you to a street match. And if you don't accept, he'll keep trying until he kills you."
Beside me, Kevin makes no movement for a minute. Then, slowly, his face sets, and his eyes drop. He studies the door at his feet, noting the size of the bootprints. Whoever this asshole is, he's way, way bigger than Kevin. And if he's the local champion - he was, wasn't it? Or... is? - than Kevin is in trouble.
And yet, when he lifts his eyes, they're full of determination.
Okay, so I know he's pissed off, and I know this is the wrong situation to be thinking it, but my god he's so cute with that look on his face. Like... crap. I fight the urge to kiss him at the same time that Tala runs a hand through his hair, accepting the look as if Kevin had said "you're on". Only to Eli. Or... Wait, now I'm all confused.
Oh well. We stand around the door for a while longer before the elevator dings open. In what feels like seconds, Spencer and Bryan are upon us, groceries in hand. They herd us inside, Spencer focusing on balancing the three bags he's holding while Bryan swears and tugs the lock down. Goddamnit, I just put this fucking thing in, I can't fucking believe it, fuckfuckity fuck fuck, and so on. Kevin is the only one who can't speak Russian, so he has no idea what he's saying, and keeps asking me. If I weren't so dazed, I would laugh.
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I wake up to Kevin kicking me in his sleep. He mutters something incoherent and rolls away before sighing, and as if he changed his mind, he rolls back. I catch him just in time to not be hit by his arm, that shoots up and lands on me awkwardly the second I let go of it. It's weird: the last time we slept in the same bed - my bed, if you will recall - he was totally calm and still and, mostly, warm. Like, super-cuddly warm. So why the hell is he acting like this now?
"Kevin," I mutter, coming out of sleep. He says something again and whines a bit, tugging at my grip on his wrist before a whimper escapes his throat. He tries to roll away, and in the process delivers a swift and very powerful kick to my stomach.
, I can't breathe! I lie there a minute, gasping with my hands around my stomach, as Kevin rolls to the other side of the bed and cocoons himself in the blankets. Wheezing, I slowly but surely recover from the blow and sit up. I cough once and bend over the edge of the bed, turning on the light.
"Kevin," I try again, turning back around and moving toward him. He's completely buried in the blankets, and even though the sound of my voice makes him kick a bit, I dive onto him and hold him still so that he can't hit me again. After a minute, he wakes with a strangled cry and bolts upright in my arms. The blankets fall from his shoulders and his hands shoot out, grabbing onto my shirt like a lifeline.
For a few long moments, he just sits there, panting. Gradually, as he comes to realize that his nightmare was just that - a nightmare - he relaxes and looks toward me slowly.
"Ian?"
"Yeah. Thanks for the kick."
He returns my look blankly for a moment before looking down at his cast. "Sorry."
I shrug, slowly loosening my arms from where they rest around his waist. He tilts his head to the side and leans against me tiredly.
"I don't think I can do this."
"The challenge match?"
"The street match. He's obviously not afraid to hurt me, Ian, and a match without rules is going to be the death of me."
I hug him a bit tighter, feeling the familiar distant ache of my own still-healing bruises. "Yeah, well, it's not like you'll be alone. Spencer and Tala and Bryan and I will all be there to kick his ass if he even tries to hurt you."
He sighs again, for lack of a better thing to do. "Ian?"
"Yeah?"
"... Nevermind."
I try to say something but stop, and eventually release a sigh of my own.
"Okay."
-x-x-x-
"This is entirely implausible. I can't even begin to comprehend the injustice that I've just woken up to. I mean, fuck."
I look over at Kevin with a goofy smile on my face. Since he had had such a hard time sleeping last night, I didn't bother waking him up when I got out of bed, so he's the last into the living room.
"Oh, stuff it," Mariah replies, reclining back on the couch from where she had been craning to see him. He storms forward onto the carpet and turns to look at her. His face is set on that "consideration" stage, where he's trying to figure out exactly what's going on and word it cleverly in his own head. (Or at least, that's how he explained to me. Apparently it's a habit of his.)
"Why are you here?"
"Oh, I don't know. I suppose no one knows. It could have been evolution, maybe, or maybe 'blank' religion is right after all. Or I suppose-"
"No. None of that existentialistic crap, Mariah. Cut the pejorative attitude and tell me why you're here, in this flat."
She just smiles at him. "Nervous for your big day?"
Kevin's face drops the annoyance that had been accumulating there. He's surprised that she knows about it, and no words are forming on the tip of his tongue. I look back around to Mariah as Kevin slowly drops his gaze and falls onto the couch beside me.
"I've been here for thirty minutes, Kevin. That's enough time for me to get filled in."
She crosses one leg over the other and starts to kick her foot. What a strange nervous habit.
"That, and Tala called me," she continued. Kevin's head snaps up to look at the offending red head, eyes full of hurt and betrayal. Tala lowers the paper and blinks, surprised by Kevin's surprise... and I'm surprised, but Mariah's not really surprised, and my surprise is surprised by how surprised I am with all these surprising surprises.
Surprise is a weird word.
"Don't look at me, kid," Tala sighs, breaking me back into the real world. Kevin slumps bitterly. Odd, this is possibly the closest to angry I've seen him since the day I first brought him back here. I guess he really isscared.
Mariah gets up and moves passed me in order to plunk back down on the other side of Kevin. He ignores her for a minute before giving up and resting his head on her shoulder.
"Does Lee know?"
Mariah looks up at the clock. It must be weird for her to be here, if she never has before. I guess it must have taken some balls to come over here on her own. Either way, she has her legs crossed and is kicking her foot again. Her flat - is that what those shoes are called? Flats? - is flopping up and down, clapping quietly against her heel as it clings to her toes for dear life.
"Yeah. But he didn't show much interest in coming."
Kevin pulls a face, his nose wrinkling in an adorable way. I wish he were resting on my shoulder...
"He's a dick."
"Kevin," Mariah starts in a warning tone, but she doesn't push it. I can tell she's thinking the exact same thing. A long silence stretches out before Kevin lifts off of her and looks down at where my hand is on my lap. After a little thought, he reaches over with his casted arm and does his best to take hold of my hand with his fingers. I squeeze back.
"How's Mathilda?"
Mariah releases a sort of 'oh yeah, bring that up' laugh, and shakes her head. She's really pretty.
"She's fine," she mutters after some pause. "Parents are being evil about it, though."
Kevin nods mutely. "And your parents?"
I realize, immediately, what he's getting at. First of all, it's obvious to everyone and their mother that he's trying to change the subject. And secondly, he's thinking about us, and how his parents might react. Mariah is quiet for a minute before looking down at Kevin, her fingers tugging at his pantleg thoughtlessly.
"Only Lee knows right now, technically."
Kevin is staring at the coffee table. I give his hand a little squeeze, noting the dull glaze in his eyes.
There's an irrational part of the brain which I truly believe everyone has, that insists that we have to help relieve the pain of people we care about. That part of my brain, at the moment, has picked up a drum, hiered a marching band, and is smashing around trying to get my attention. I mean... just look at him. He's so sad, and conflicted, and worried, and-
"Ian, stop staring at me."
Adorable. How is it that in times of despair, when he's pissed or sad or distraught, I only manage to think about how attractive I think he is? I mean, I know I was raised in the abbey, but I'm not heartless. I just get distracted by all the emotion on his face, and I end up thinking about how nice he looks.
"Ian, cut it out. You're aggravating me."
"You were aggravated when you woke up this morning."
He turns toward me fully. "I will beat your ass worse than Tala, Ian."
Ooh, low blow. Low, low blow. I must be giving him a stubborn look, because he smiles despite himself and pulls his hand out of mine in order to punch at me. The swing is so half-assed and weak that I just catch it and take his hand in my own again.
"He can do it, too," Mariah warns, rolling her eyes. Tala mutters something from behind his paper, but doesn't bother to share it with any of us.
It's at this point that Spencer walks in holding a small black leather-bound book, and stops in such a way and such a place that we all look up at him.
"I suppose none of you saw this when we cleaned up after our mysterious visitors, huh?"
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Three down.