I am very sorry for the very late update! I have been so stressed with school and drowsy with this new medication I'm on that I just haven't found time for writing. :c But, here is Chapter 12, after many months of waiting...Enjoy~


A pain shot through the side of my face as I stood there motionless, unable to speak or even think clearly. I wanted to talk, but my voice was stuck in my throat; I wanted to understand what was going on but my mind was just too overwhelmed. It took a minute for me to realize what had just happened: Kaito had hit me. I raised my hand to my cheek to feel the spot where it burned with pain and I could feel a bruise forming there already. Kaito stood across from me, my phone in his left hand and his right hand still suspended in mid-air from the motion of hitting me. His face had turned bright red out of rage and he gazed angrily at me with his narrow, navy blue eyes. My knees started quivering in fear when I realized how pissed off he was.

"Kaito..." I whimpered, choking on my words. He continued to gaze at me with the same angry expression, his eyes locked on contact with mine.

"How could you do this to me?"

"D-do what?" I stuttered, choking back tears.

"You're cheating on me again, goddammit!"

"N-no, I'm not."

"Then explain to me why you were talking to this Piko guy," Kaito said sternly, straining his voice as he spoke Piko's name.

"W-we were just clearing up some issues so nothing would happen again! What's wrong with you lately, Kaito?"

"What do you mean 'what's wrong with me?'"

"Ever since you've stopped travelling around, you've just become a real jerk."

"Says the guy who cheats on his partner."

"Seriously, Kaito, have you not noticed how your behaviour's changed?" By now, I was fuming and tears were threatening to escape my eyes at any second.

"Wh-what... no, I don't think..." My question had struck Kaito speechless. Had it really taken this long for him to notice anything?

"I'm leaving for a while, don't try to come and find me." I'd made this decision in a split second and just realized how stupid it could be, but I didn't care.

Before Kaito could say another word, I pushed past him with all my strength and stormed through the bathroom door. "Hey!" I heard Kaito shout, but by that time I had already sprinted across the kitchen and reached the little end table by the main door where I kept little necessities like my keys, spare change and my wallet... Just what I need.

Grabbing my wallet swiftly before Kaito could see what I was doing, I burst the door of my apartment open and slammed it back shut without a word. And then I ran.

Before I knew it, I was sprinting down the street with no idea where exactly I was going. I had to get away from Kaito no matter where I ended up and I couldn't believe that I hadn't had the courage to do this before, that it was just this easy to get away from him.

Images of the street and people passing me were all blurs as I sprinted past them. I didn't take time to notice the fact that I'd forgotten a jacket and my exposed skin was now numb from the cold of the evening or that I probably looked like a maniac running down the street at full speed, almost shoving past people. A thought in the back of my head told me that what I was doing was stupid, immature, ridiculous, but my instincts told me otherwise; I wasn't paying attention to where I was going but I knew I just had to go wherever I was headed.

Several minutes later, I had to stop to catch my breath when I finally noticed my surroundings. Bent over panting, I realized that I'd been here before many times during those few weeks when Kaito was away.

This neighbourhood was all too familiar.

Why the hell had I dragged myself here, out of all places? Still panting, I placed my sweaty forehead into the palm of my hand and let out an annoyed sigh.

"I'm really stupid, aren't I?" I muttered to myself with a smirk on my face, attracting the looks from some people passing by. Chuckling to myself nervously, I resumed heading in the direction of the place where I'd led myself...

Next thing I knew, I was standing in the front entrance of his apartment complex, anxious to press the button that would page his apartment. Oh god, oh god, I can't do this...

I took a deep breath as my finger hovered next to the button, shaking.

What if he's mad at me? Or maybe he's afraid to face me right now? What if he won't let me in...?

It took me a minute to realize I'd just pressed the button. Oh no. I hadn't planned out how I was going to approach this...

"Hello?" I heard from the speaker in front of me. The voice sounded weak, but I couldn't be sure over the bad quality of the speaker.

"Uh...um..." I cleared my throat. "P-piko? It's..."

"Len?"

"Um, yeah."

"Oh, good, you're safe..." he sighed at the other end. "Come in." The door leading up the steps opened up and I rushed toward them, racing up two stairs at a time. I couldn't believe I was actually doing this, but my instincts had led me here, so I had to be here for some reason. Plus, Piko had agreed to let me in without hesitating at all, which must have been a good sign. His apartment was three flights up, and by the time I'd reached the third floor I was out of breath again and had to pause for a minute before heading toward my destination... By the time I approached the door, I was almost shaking in fear, my legs wobbly and feeling like jello.

Standing in front of the door, I flattened out my hair with a quick brush of my hand and straightened out my clothes which were messily arranged from running all the way here. With a final brush of my sweaty forehead with the back of my left hand, I placed the right up to the door and knocked firmly three times.

I was greeted almost immediately by the door swinging open at a speed I never thought possible.

"Len!" Piko leaped out of the doorway and wrapped his arms around my torso. I hesitated at first but eventually gave in to his hug, realizing that this night was already screwed up enough and this wouldn't make a difference.

"Let's go in," Piko said, separating our hug and leading me into his apartment. I didn't want to admit it, but I'd honestly missed spending time here...maybe because my own place was filled with so many bad memories...

"Do you want some tea?"

"Uh...sure, thanks." I took a seat on Piko's couch since I was exhausted from my run here and it was the comfiest piece of furniture in sight. Piko was busy making tea and whatever he had on TV was some stupid, cheesy drama so I decided to give myself a few minutes to think to myself.

I was feeling a mix of emotions, but the strongest was worry. I couldn't care less about what Kaito would do to me if he found me since I'd been through it all but I was worried about what he'd do to Piko. Even the way he'd spoken on the phone to Piko was threatening enough to make me frightened; I definitely couldn't imagine how he had felt after that.

My head was starting to hurt from thinking too much and I was relieved when I saw Piko walk out of his kitchen with two teacups in his hands.

"Thanks," I said when he handed me one. He responded with a smile but I noticed something different about his eyes: they seemed a lot sadder than usual and were slightly bloodshot. I pondered the thought only for a minute before coming to the conclusion that he was probably crying before I came over; after all, I definitely would have in the same situation.

After Piko took a seat next to me, we started talking. I told him about the hard times I'd gone through with Kaito in the past two months and he talked about how much he'd missed me, as well as some other random chitchat. Our conversation moved from one topic to the next as we both lost track of time, and when I finally looked at the clock it was nearly 11 PM.

"Oh god, it's really late," I said, interrupting our conversation. "I should get going..."

"Get going where? Do you even have a place to go this late?" Piko laughed.

"Well, not really..." I hadn't even thought of that before speaking up. I guess the 'I should get going' was more instinctive and less meaningful than I thought.

"Then you're staying here for tonight."

"Okay," I chuckled.

After some more useless chitchat, I felt a wall of drowsiness hit me hard. I didn't know whether I was tired from running here or I was mentally unstable or a combination of the two, but whatever it was, it sure put a bunch of holes in my memory because the next thing I remember was laying in Piko's bed. With him straddling me.

Oh god, oh god, why am I doing this?

I felt Piko's lips against mine, forming a kiss that made him let out a moan. I couldn't resist that sound no matter how hard I tried and all I could do was grab the back of his head and pull him in closer. He responded by biting my bottom lip softly and our kiss soon became a tangle of tongues and saliva. God, I'd missed this so much no matter how much I regretted it afterwards every time. I was so tired and sore from the previous events that day that I wasn't thinking straight and somehow I'd ended up in this position, shirtless and panting like a dog, but I didn't even care right now.

Piko's breathing sped up and became heavier, clearly indicating that he wanted more. My fingers on one hand made their way under his shirt and up his delicate stomach, tracing every inch of skin I could reach while my other hand ran through his silky hair. I found Piko's tenderness to be extremely more arousing than Kaito's rough ways...

Stupid, stop thinking of him!

Shaking all thoughts of Kaito from my head, I moved my hand down from Piko's abdomen and rested it as the hem of his boxers. Hesitating and waiting for his permission, I was surprised when he flinched his hips forward so suddenly in an effort to tell me that I had the green light. I slowly made my way past the fabric and clenched my fingers around him, hearing a very satisfying moan escape Piko's lips as I felt him stiffen in my hand. As his breathing sped up even more, I felt his handing trailing around my body before slipping into my own boxers, causing a feeling of arousal that I hadn't felt in what seemed like forever.

We soon had to break our kiss since neither of us would have been able to hold our breaths long enough at the rate we were now breathing. Piko buried his face into my shoulder so all I could hear were his rapid breaths and occasional moans and god, it was exciting; even as my sore body starting becoming painful, I did not feel like stopping what I was doing anytime soon.

"Len...I'm gonna..." Piko said in between deep breaths just as I started feeling the high of this whole ordeal approaching.

"Me...too..."

My memory must have gone blank after that moment since all I could remember was a haze of pleasure, pain and regret.