Kankri sat in his room, tutoring his classmate. She was being particularly obstinate and was just lounging on her back in his bed. He heard his phone buzz and looked at it. Cronus had finally responded to him, hours after his initial text.
fuckin fine by me, kan. vwhen you vwant me to come to your room?
Kankri chewed on his lip and responded.
Yes. Please c9me here p9sthaste. We have much t9 discuss.
yeah got it. im on my vway.
Let y9urself in. I'm 9nly studying.
He looked over to his bed. "Damara? I'm going to need you to please leave. My partner is coming and the two of us need to have a private conversation."
She rolled onto her stomach. "Oh, but I'm so comfortable here, Kankri!" She smirked. "I could hide. Be very very quiet?"
"No. Please leave."
She got off the bed and wandered over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "But I want to stay here."
He frowned and looked up at her. "Please, I've asked you to leave and I am beginning to find this contact incredibly triggeri—!" She cut him off by pressing a wet kiss to his lips and straddling his lap as the door opened.
When she pulled away and got off him. "I'll just be leaving now, darling. Bye!" She waved her fingers at him and pushed past Cronus.
Kankri got up and ran towards Cronus whose face was contorted into a scowl. "Cronus! That wasn't...!"
"I was fuckin' right. You were fuckin' cheatin' on me. With her." He shook his head and bit his lip. "I can't believe you fuckin' had it in you." His face softened and suddenly he just looked so small. "I'm just gonna go back to my fuckin' room." He turned to leave.
Kankri grabbed his shoulder. "Cronus, no! That wasn't what was going on!" He pulled him into his room and closed the door before he could leave.
"I'm sure it wasn't." His voice was small and his confidence drained. He laughed. "And I bet this is actually a dream. Let's see." He took his lighter out of his pocket.
"Cronus?"
"Go fuck yourself. What the fuck is even wrong with you? You invited me to your room to see you face fuckin' that chick?"
"She kissed me!"
"I'm sure." He lit his lighter and stared at the flame.
"Cronus, it's the truth!" He watched as Cronus held his hand over the flame. "Don't you dare do that to yourself!"
"Why? What you gonna do? You don't even fuckin' care about me anyway."
Kankri growled in irritation. "I care about you, Cronus!" He pulled the lighter out of his hand and closed the cap on it. "And I don't want you to hurt yourself!"
He frowned. "Yeah I'm sure you fucking care." He was starting to drop his tough guy act. Kankri could tell.
"I do! Why else would I have asked you to come here?"
"Because we need to fucking talk. And I know what that fucking means. Not like this is the first time I've been dumped."
Kankri flinched a little. "Dumped? You think that I wanted you to come here so that I could break up with you?"
"Of course! Why else would you say that?"
He blinked rapidly in his confusion. "Because we... need... to talk?"
"Yeah? And that's just the universal way to say that you're gonna fucking break up with someone!" He threw his hands in the air like he was done.
"What?"
He ran his fingers through his hair. "You mean to tell me that you didn't know that?"
"No! I had no idea that what I had said had such implications!"
Cronus frowned. "So, what, you just actually wanted to talk?"
"Yes!"
He sighed heavily. "I don't believe you. I'm going back to my room."
"No!" He blocked the door.
"What?"
"You heard me! You're going to stay here and you're going to listen!" He stamped his foot and stared up at him.
"I don't want to listen! You're just gonna fucking lie! Just like everyone else does!"
"Cronus Ampora! You are going to sit down! You are going to be quiet! And YOU. Are GOING. To fucking LISTEN." He practically hissed the last word out as he backed Cronus to his bed.
Cronus stood dumbfounded and his eyes searched his face. "Babe you ain't never talked to me like that."
"Because I don't enjoy speaking this way! Now sit DOWN!" He shoved him onto the bed so he could talk to him at a better level. "Lately there's been some foolishness between us." His voice was level again as he tried to regain his usual calm.
"Foolishness?" Cronus's voice sounded almost hurt.
"Yes. Foolishness. Now I'm not entirely sure how this began or how it got to far out of hand, but it needs to stop."
Cronus ducked his head down. "You sure you ain't breakin' up with me?" His voice was small, almost painfully so.
"No, I'm not breaking up with you." He put his hands on Cronus's shoulders. "I'm telling you that, in this past week and a half or so, the two of us have been incredibly immature about responding to each other." Cronus mumbled something under his breath. "What was that?" He did it again. "I didn't quite catch that."
"I said: You started it!"
"Cronus I wasn't contacting you because I didn't want you to be hurt!"
"Well that didn't fuckin' work now, did it?!" His voice had come back and it was obvious that he was incredibly angry.
"You're acting like a child! You know about my past and yet..."
"Your fucking past? Oh, so that fuckin' chick ain't triggerin' to you but I am?"
"Exactly! Though I found her behavior to be quite offensive, she was in no way triggering to me, as my trigger comes from unwanted sexual contact with male bodied persons!"
Cronus rolled his eyes and laid back. "Whatever."
"Don't you dare whatever me!" He shoved Cronus back further and straddled his lap. "I do not appreciate how you're handling this situation! I didn't contact you initially because I felt that any contact between the two of us, no matter how much I may have appreciated it, could have proven to be highly triggering! And after the first few initial days I began contacting you again and you were acting like a selfish ass!"
"I was actin' like an ass? YOU were the one that sent that fuckin' chick to tell me to fuck off and that you didn't wanna see me as much!"
"What? What are you even talking about?" His hands were on either side of his head while he kept his weight shifted down to keep Cronus from moving.
"You sent that fuckin' weird ass Asian bitch to tell me that you didn't want to see me!"
"Who?"
"That bitch that just had her fuckin' tongue down your throat!"
"Damara?" He frowned. "She's been acting stranger than usual lately. I don't think that I'll be tutoring her anymore."
"That don't fuckin' change what she said!"
"She was lying Cronus! I've wanted to see you for quite some time again!"
"Why didn't you fuckin' tell her that we're partners?"
"Because she didn't need to know!"
"Why are you tutorin' her!"
"Because English is her second language." He was just going to answer every question.
"Are you fuckin' her?"
"No."
"Do you want to?" He heard Cronus's voice hitch a little.
"No." He averted his gaze. "Though I have, on occasion, thought about that with you."
Cronus sighed. "Now ain't the time to make me want you, babe."
"I know."
He wrapped his arms around Kankri. "I'm okay to fuckin' hug you right?"
"Yes."
He pulled him down some. "Can I kiss you?"
"Yes." He leaned forward and met Cronus's lips. Somehow he felt better in this position. He felt... safer.
Cronus pulled back, a frown on his face. "I'm so sorry babe."
Kankri laughed a little. "You should be." He leaned down and kissed him again, his lips moving slowly as his tongue brushed against Cronus's lips.
"Babe what are you doing?"
He shrugged some. "Making up for lost time."
