It was odd… the first time I had met my father and Riku I had felt annoyed that we were meeting up in public, mostly due to the lack of formality that it gave. Now we were in a family clerks office and I felt just as uncomfortable with the office style area that was set up to resemble the worlds most boring living room. There was no rhyme or reason to my thought process.

I sat in my normal position of discomfort, arms wrapped around my legs and chin resting on my knees, partly obscuring my face. I position I wished I had not chosen when my father entered the room and smirked at me.

"You sat that exact same way when you were a little boy." He told me, causing me to wish I had the ability to make myself invisible.

I didn't answer him and seldom noticed that it was not only Ono-San in the room with us this time, but my therapist who I still refused to speak to as well.

I hated this…

"Thank you for allowing me to attend this visit." She stated, bowing gently. "I've been working with Kai since his CPS case opened up but I would like to be able to make more progress as we handle the process of involving a psychiatrist." She turned her attention to me. "Our goal isn't to just get you talking because we're nosy. Due to the trauma you've experienced in your life we're hoping to be able to better benefit your mental health."

Was this like, an intervention or something?

Ono-San cleared her throat.

"Susumu," She addressed my father. "Our primary concern at this time is the physical and emotional abuse that Kai experienced when in the care of your father. As neither Kai or Voltaire are currently willing to address this, we would like to know your knowledge regarding this time in your sons life."

I honestly wasn't sure if my father even had the ability to answer that question. According to my medical records I did sustain injuries while under the care of my parents, but if I understand correctly I didn't begin living permanently in The Abbey until my father left me.

He seemed uncomfortable with the question, clearly his throat and stuttering a bit.

"There were injuries during his time in The Abbey that caused my wife at the time and I concern, but my father always passed it off as boys being boys. They worked to take care of themselves and had little supervision in regards to what they did in their free time. I took it as kids playing too roughly and getting hurt."

Both Ono-San and Watanabe-San wrote something down before she continued.

"His mother brought him to the ER for a broken wrist when he was six. According to our records, Kai's pediatrician had concerns about there being abuse in the household. Were you aware of these concerns?"

"Again, I assumed he was playing too hard. He was a few years younger than the other boys and due to his mixed race was quite small compared to them. I figured that breaking a bone was just a right of passage that kids went through."

She handed him a copy of my medical records, which I had agreed to allow, if anything my medical records could stop his ability to gain any parental rights toward me.

"Throughout the first two years that your son spent in The Abbey we have six pages of medical concerns, whether it be from the ER or from yearly check ups. As you can see his pediatrician began taking notes regarding signs of abuse immediately after his first ER visit, stating his demeanor had changed significantly and that he had gone from a relatively happy child to being quiet and unresponsive. He was never able to prove that abuse was taking place, but he wrote down several red flags, regarding them as signs of physical, emotional and sexual abuse."

I hid my face in my knees. Did I have to be in here for this discussion? I didn't want to know any of this stuff.

"We tried to get him out." My father continued. "You don't know the power my father has. After he gave up on me he saw my son as a replacement. He wanted to mold him into the person he had wanted me to be. Children at that Abbey had gone missing. I knew I had to leave but if I took Kai without his permission I would be putting both of our lives in danger."

He sighed. Both in shame and in anger. "Our family had fallen apart. My wife hadn't been heard from in almost a year after confronting my father… I couldn't lose my son too."

I was trying to stay in control of my emotions, focusing on my breathing and keeping my eyes closed. I couldn't stay in this room and listen to this anymore.

My grandfather held me by my arm tightly, ignoring my screams and repeated pleas to be let go.

"I don't wanna stay here!" I shrieked, attempting unsuccessfully to squirm away. My father had his things packed, the house still contained clutter and broken glass from the previous fight they had and the sound of their booming voices screaming at one another haunted me.

I didn't understand what happened.

All I knew was that my father was leaving and that I wasn't going with.

Digging my nails into his skin I successfully freed myself, making it hardly a single yard before a slap to the face brought me to the ground hard. Although able to get up, I was unable to get past the lock that kept me in the house, unable to reach it.

"Get yourself under control, this is a warning."

I had been left outside in The Abbey during the night as a punishment in the past, although I had always been allowed to go home with my father at the end of the day. Now that I was spending more days and nights here, spending the night outside had been the main threat I had dangled in front of me.

Now all I could do was drop to my knees and curl up in an attempt to sooth myself.

"I want my daddy..." I sobbed quietly, trying to control my crying before I found myself with a worse punishment.

No response, no comfort, no one who cared.

The last person who cared about me was gone.

A hand touching my back shocked me back to reality as I pushed violently away, losing my balance and falling to the floor. Everyone's eyes were on me now and the sound of my own screams continued to play inside of my head. If I would cry I would be hit, if I didn't obey I would be beaten. I had not been walking at a quick enough pace down the concrete stairway and one of the adults had pushed me; that was where I caught myself with my hands and that was where I remembered the sound of my wrist snapping. That was when my father had taken me to the hospital just like my mother did a few years earlier.

Most of the adults had left the clerks office at this point. Now I just sat on the ground with two people. My therapist who I still rarely spoke to and another woman I had never met.

Although I could hear them speaking their voices were muffled as though I were underwater, my ability to comprehend what they said still lost.

"Kai."

I was jolted back to reality, suddenly realizing how hard I was breathing and how much my hands trembled.

"Flashback?" The woman who I had never met asked. She sat on the floor next to me, hand on my shoulder. "Can you tell me what you saw?"

"Nothing." I shook my head, getting onto my feet and sitting back down appropriately. "I'm fine."

"I'm not here to judge you about your past. My goal is to help you, so that your flashbacks happen less often. Your mind is coping the only way it knows how."

"I told you, I'm fine." I repeated. "I wanna leave now."

I wanted Wyatt. He was the only one who knew how to calm me down.

"Your father explained to us what happened the day he left, but we would like to hear your side of the story as well, the way you remember it. When your brain senses stress, even mildly, it attempts to shield you, causing you to go into a state of disassociation where you are no longer present in reality. When you're triggered severely enough, that line between reality and your own head can overlap, causing you to believe that you're somewhere you aren't. In your case, from what I've read and witnessed, you appear to go into a flashback."

My fists held tightly to the fabric of my pants as I struggled to keep appropriate composure.

"I was eight when my dad left. I don't remember shit about it."

Watanabe-San, who had yet to speak, raised an eyebrow cautiously.

"You called him your dad." She stated, repeating what I had just said. "I've only ever heard you refer to him as your father. You've never added that personal touch before."

I ignored her. What the fuck did that matter?

The second woman cleared her throat before speaking again.

"Kai," She said solemnly. "You need to tell us what happened to you when you were a child. This is the only way we can help you. It's the only way you can get past this. You cannot stay at school during the summer and if you are unable to be housed with your father and his family you will be placed with a foster family, do you understand that?"

"Only until I'm sixteen. I'm applying for emancipation."

"You will never be emancipated with your mental health the way that it is. I'm telling you right now, it will not happen. You will be placed with a foster family and could lose your ability to compete due to your status regarding not having a permanent arrangement regarding your custody."

"I'm not a piece of fucking furniture."

"I promise you, they don't care."

Silence filled the room now. I had nothing more I could argue…

"What do you want to know?" I asked shamefully, pulling myself back into my position of comfort.

"To start, I would like to ask you if I'm correct in assuming you had a flashback here today."

Another pause. I needed to think before speaking…

"I don't know which of my memories are real and which ones aren't. Realistically I shouldn't have strong memories of an event that happened when I was eight."

"Are you referring to your father leaving you with your grandfather?"

I didn't like any of these questions… my thoughts were jumbled, I didn't know what was real and what wasn't. Only hours ago I hardly even remembered when my father abandoned me, only able to recall silhouettes and the sound of adults yelling at one another.

"He was the parent." I said. "He was supposed to keep me safe. He listened to me scream for him to come back and he couldn't even look at me. He never even told me good bye."

She nodded, but didn't speak. "It was every guy for himself out there." I continued. "It was better to lay low and just do what was expected of you. That way you were less likely to get hurt."

"Can you explain what you mean by that?"

"If you disobeyed orders or didn't improve the way you were expected to, you were punished. Sometimes they beat you, sometimes they would withhold food or warmth. If they brought you to the dungeons down below it was a death sentence."

"Is it correct that you were only six when this began?"

Actually, I had been five. The only difference in the beginning was that I wasn't there permanently. They treated me differently because I wasn't orphaned, not like they were… Nothing that the adults did to me was ever as severe as what the other boys did. I was punished for existing. They would gain up on me and hold me down, playing a game of how long it would take me to cry.

Not noticing I hadn't spoken for a few minutes, I perked up slightly when the woman suggested we take a break for today. I agreed immediately, afraid she would change her mind if I didn't. I felt exhausted just from the short conversation.

"You've done very well today, Kai." Watanabe-San, who I had forgotten was in the room, spoke. She touched a hand to my shoulder. Nothing about today felt anything other than terrible. None of these people were going to look at me the same after this. If my team ever learned what I had been put through they wouldn't look at me the same either. I didn't want to be treated differently because of my past.

I flinched slightly as my father and Ono-San reentered the room, Riku now walking at his side.

"Sorry," He explained, "Their childcare area is closing."

The more I looked at him the more I noticed that Riku and I did resemble each other quite a bit, aside from him having a bulkier build than I did; he spoke Japanese fluently and with no accent but I was pretty sure he wasn't Asian at all. If he was, he didn't look it.

"Hi," He waved before coming over and taking a seat next to me. Honestly, I couldn't help but smile at him slightly. None of what I had been through had anything to do with him; it wasn't his fault we shared blood.

"You said you blade?" I asked, crossing my arms to my chest. His face lit up at this question, a sense of pride now crossing his face.

"Yeah." He answered. "I'm pretty good, too. I'm the only kid in my class who can beat any of the older kids, not the really older kids, but I wiped the floor with this one girl and she's almost eight! I'm gonna compete when I'm old enough."

"Rikuto," My father called, "Get your coat on, we're going to head back home so that they can finish closing for the day."

"Yes Daddy." He answered, climbing back down and walking towards where the adults all stood.

I stood up as well. After everything today I was more than ready to be heading back. Ono-San took me by the shoulder and walked me to the door, pausing along with me when Riku called to me.

Turning my head his direction I caught a glance of him walking toward me and knelt down to his height.

"Goodbye!" He said before wrapping himself around my neck in a tight hug. I ruffled his hair slightly before getting up, the same way I remembered my parents doing to me as a child. He ran back to my fathers side as he approached me as well, hand stretched out.

"Goodbye… son." He said without confidence. I shook his hand and nodded before turning back around to leave.

I needed a cigarette…

Wyatt was waiting for me outside when I made it back to the dorms, swinging himself around me in an incredibly uncomfortable hug. Still, I managed to regain my balance, almost losing it again immediately as he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the building.

"Tyson seems to think he's a local celebrity." He giggled.

I wasn't surprised, I could already hear him yelling some kind of monologue at a group of impressionable freshmen and insisting he had a secret weapon that would make him unbeatable at this years tournament.

Rolling my eyes and putting a hand on my hip, I grunted at him, cocking my head in annoyance.

"Your only secret weapon is your mouth." I said.

Tyson looked at me and smirked.

"I would offer to take you on, but I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of your classmates."

"We aren't allowed to battle on school grounds." A nasally voiced freshman stated shyly.

"Well I guess you got lucky then, didn't you?" Tyson continued, posing badly and smiling like an idiot.

"That's what she said." Wyatt smirked. I smacked him on the back of the head, waving Tyson to follow us as the crowd he built up went on with their lives.

It quieted down relatively quickly as we got into the elevator, a brief silence interrupted by Tyson making a snotty comment about the fact that I was dressed like what he referred to as a 'tiny business man'. I'd like to point out that I'm almost four inches taller than him.

"We can't change out of uniforms until after dinner." I shrugged, "And I had somewhere I needed to be. It's not like I picked it out myself."

I did succeed at keeping them in the hallway for a few minutes so that I could change, throwing on jeans that were too small and looked more like Capri pants, long sleeves and a scarf. I had a small hickey and although it wasn't noticeable, my friends were all idiots and would most certainly make note of it.

By the time I opened the door again the other three dumbasses were out there as well, Avery bragging about his imaginary sex life while Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"Quit making an ass out of yourself." He groaned as I allowed everyone into my room. "The last time you saw a naked woman your mom was breastfeeding you, quit pretending you're a slut."

Seriously, why would he invite Tyson to one of their halfassed attempts at a party?

"So let me get this straight," Tyson asked while he looked around. "You all just live on your own in dorm rooms with no adults checking in on what you're doing?"

"Pretty much." Wyatt responded. "Once in awhile they'll do a room check but no one has gotten in that kind of trouble in awhile, at least not since Eric dropped pure sodium off the roof and into the pool and got us put in lock down because the school thought a bomb went off. No one was able to smuggle alcohol or drugs for weeks and we still don't have a pool anymore." He looked at me. "Which is a shame because it would be a lot easier to blackmail you if all I had to do was threaten to sign you up for swim team."

"We also recently had a school meeting regarding that genitals are not to be stuck out the window at any time." Emile chuckled.

Tyson was laughing hysterically and Henri had pulled a bottle of vodka out from under my bed and cracked open a can of soda. If these idiots got Tyson drunk, he was there problem. I didn't sign up to babysit him.

"But for real," He asked through his laughter, wiping tears from his eyes. "Those pictures of you that ended up online, how much had you had to drink? You look completely wasted."

"He was higher than a kite." Avery giggled.

"You drugged me!" I reminded him. Every time I had gotten drunk had been through my own free will but I will always stand by what I said that night. I had no idea that they were eating edibles.

Wyatt came over and sat next to me, getting a bit closer than I would prefer and causing me to need to move away just a bit.

"I still kinda liked the part where a poll went up asking if our classmates thought I was your boyfriend." He smirked.

"I mean," Henri said with a shrug, "You pretty much are his boyfriend, even if neither of you are what I would call public about it."

Although I felt my face heat up in shame, Tyson didn't seem to catch that he wasn't joking and paid the remark no attention. My mind now invaded by a question I had never asked myself:

Was Wyatt my boyfriend?

My stomach got tight when I thought about it. Wyatt was my best friend, I was comfortable letting my guard down when I was around him. We slept in the same bed a lot of the time, not because we were doing anything, but because I liked the feeling of being close to him. I liked listening to his heartbeat while I lay on his chest, I liked how his hand felt in mine. Hell, I had shoved my tongue in his mouth on more than one occasion.

I had never used the term boyfriend to describe him, though…

I took the bottle of vodka from Henri and drank straight from it, causing myself to cough at the unpleasant taste. A Russian drinking vodka, how the shoe fit.

"Honestly," Tyson remarked, "I guess I just never thought of you as the partying type. You always seemed more like the person who would scold everyone else for partying and make sure they all got home in one piece."

"You don't do much with your team when it comes to just hanging out, huh?" Emile asked, attempting to light a cigarette that I immediately snatched from him.

"You are not getting me another smoking violation. Smoke in your own room."

Tyson seemed to be lost in thought now, looking at the photographs I had hanging up. We only had a small handful of group photos, most of them were just selfies that Wyatt took of us, his arm typically around my shoulder. I was even smiling slightly in some of them.

"I guess I just never thought about the life you had outside of the tournament season. You always seemed like the mysterious loner who disappeared into the shadows until it came time for you to make some kind of dramatic entrance."

"Doesn't mean I'm not still required by Japanese law to be in school until I'm at least sixteen." I remarked. I wasn't planning on dropping out or getting a GED, meaning I would actually be required to stay in school until eighteen unless successfully able to graduate early, which I likely couldn't accomplished based on my mediocre grades and spending summers competing.

Taking notice of our photograph from last years finals, he smirked at me, appearing to be lost within a sense of nostalgia.

"To be honest, Kai," He began, "There was a point where I had begun losing faith that you would ever come around. You were nearly impossible to read and it just seemed like nothing would break that wall down. I wasn't really sure if all of us would ever really be friends."

"I didn't think I wanted friends." I admitted. "I was used to the concept of every man for himself. If there was something that didn't directly benefit me or my desire to be the best, I didn't want it. It's how I was raised."

My teammates had somewhat mocked me last year regarding my near death experience, explaining that even in the event that they didn't like me they still wouldn't have just stood there and watched me drown, but that was exactly what I was referring to in regards to every man for himself.

In The Abbey, although most people didn't go out of their way to cause harm to someone, it was best to keep your guard up wherever you went. If you were on someones bad side then crossing paths with them could be dangerous. They didn't need a reason not to like you. If someone was pissed off you could easily become a punching bag. In my case, existing pissed them off.

That being said if someone was in trouble and calling out for help you were expected to look the other way. You didn't waste your time fixating on the problems of somebody else when you were using all the energy you had in order to keep yourself alive.

It felt awkward having one of my teammates mixed in with my classmates. Most stories that Tyson told involved things that only I understood and most of my classmates conversations were about people and things he didn't know.

He did seem to enjoy Avery's stories of drunk shenanigans, though.

"So explain what you mean when you say that your friends drugged you." Tyson smirked.

"I was under the impression that when you bring out edibles you're expected to inform everyone in the room that they are, in fact, edibles. I was not under the impression that you can just sit on your ass and watch someone eat them while assuming they're just a dessert someone decided to bring."

Avery was having a giggle fit.

"He ate two of them and to be honest I would have only recommended half of one, it was truly a thing of beauty. I think Wyatt hung out and babysat him that night."

"He did not babysit me." I grunted. "We just hung out for awhile."

"Yeah, making out." He smirked.

I blushed a bit. I couldn't even claim that we didn't, seeing as that was exactly what happened that night.

"Avery, quit being a jerk." Wyatt remarked, now appearing annoyed. I smirked at him somewhat shamefully, wrapping my arm around his waist. Oddly it appeared that Tyson really was clueless about the affection we displayed, so far paying us no attention and instead repeatedly just looking around my dorm.

He really seemed to be taking in our surroundings closely, investing mostly in my small mural of pictures.

"You look like you're really happy here." He said somewhat quietly.

It was a feeling I still wasn't certain about… I mean, I was happy here, but I'm not sure that school was really the reason. I was happy having friends who saw me as more than a celebrity. I liked having friends who didn't blade and were just regular people with regular lives. None of this was anything I had ever experienced growing up and for the first time in my life I found myself feeling somewhat normal.

Wyatt got to his feet and took me by the hand.

"Come and take a smoke break with me." He said while pulling me up, causing Tyson to cock an eyebrow.

"Since when do you smoke?" He asked.

"I don't really, maybe once in awhile but I'm not a chain smoker."

I had been cutting back since I had noticed myself becoming agitated and craving nicotine. I had no plans on getting addicted to something that expensive and that stupid and typically I was good at keeping a good head on my shoulders.

"We should only be about ten minutes." Wyatt remarked before dragging me out of the room by the arm, relaxing as soon as we were alone. "I'm sorry they're all kind of being jerks." He said, taking my hand in his and bringing me out onto the third story patio. It normally stayed locked due to problems regarding cigarette butts littering the ground and the occasional puddle of post party vomit, but I think after finals they had begun feeling bad for us.

Moving closer to me so we were touching, he leaned his head onto my shoulder, nuzzling himself into me for a moment before taking a step back and lighting up.

This time I denied the one he offered me.

"Self conscious now that Tyson's here?" He smirked, setting his available hand on top of mine.

"The last thing I need is Tyson and Kenny trying to give me an intervention for a habit I picked up from you." I smirked. "Besides, neither of us should be doing it."

Wyatt shrugged, taking a moment to let in some silence before we were destined to go back to chaos. Surprisingly, he chose to only smoke one cigarette this time, pocketing his lighter and turning to look at me. It drove me crazy sometimes how cute he looked when he smiled at me; he had the biggest eyes and the longest lashes. Actually I had wondered a few times if he would be cute if he were a girl too.

Tucking a section of hair behind his ear, I kissed him on the cheek, leaning in so that my head rested on his.

"We should go back in." I said. "I'm not claiming Tyson is innocent, but leaving him alone with those perverts just sounds like the start of something terrible."

I could ask him what he thought about Henri calling him my boyfriend a different time.

Making it back to the room relatively quickly, I walked in to find only the trio of idiots. This caused some concern as I had definitely left a fourth idiot when we left.

"Where did Tyson go?" I asked, remaining on my feet as Wyatt sat back down on the floor.

"He went to find you." Emile explained.

My face flushed a deep red as the thought occurred to me that the balcony was extremely easy to find. The balcony that I had just stood for ten minutes with an arm wrapped around another guy who had his head rested on my shoulder. Who's cheek I had just kissed in full view of anyone who happened to walk by.

"I'll be right back." I said quickly before darting off into the hallway once again, sighing with relief when I noticed him just at the other end of the hall, waving sheepishly when catching sight of me.

"Sorry, I forgot which room I was in." He laughed, scratching awkwardly at the back of his head and following me.

"I'm honestly sorry we aren't more entertaining." Wyatt shrugged as we joined them. "When you're used to boarding I guess dorm parties seem a lot more fun than they actually are."

To be completely honest, Tyson didn't seem to mind at all. He seemed to enjoy the company and appeared to be interested in the fact that I actually did have friends who I spent time with and cared about on (mostly) my own free will.

"Actually some of the stories you guys have told make your school life seem a lot more interesting than mine. With Hillary butting into everyone's business constantly not a lot of people go out of their way to have fun or fuck with anyone." He looked at me somewhat smugly. "Have you actually done anything like these guys have? I mean, other than getting drugged and kicking a parked car."

"Not really." I shrugged. "Besides, half of the shit these guys say is bullshit."

"Yeah, nice try, Kai." Avery giggled. "I've seen you and Wyatt sneak out of each others rooms in the early morning more times than I can count and we walked in on you guys in bed together once."

The heat in my face intensified greatly.

"Don't say it like that!" I yelled. "We were sleeping!"

"Dude, you have a hickey." He smirked.

Wyatt took that moment to get between us about half a second before I was planning on punching him in the face, grabbing him my the hair and yanking him to his feet and into the hallway. Thankfully Emile and Henri seemed to get the hint, both spending a moment letting Tyson live in his own personal spotlight as they thanked him for coming before also going back to their rooms.

Shockingly, being alone in my room with Tyson was actually significantly more awkward than being in a room with the perverted trio of assholes who for some reason I called my friends. Currently all I could do was bow my head in shame, doing all I could not to make eye contact.

"Your American friend is kind of a jerk, huh?" He asked. "Not Wyatt, that other kid."

"He's more or less harmless." I shrugged. "But yeah, Avery talks out his ass a lot. He really only cares about what makes him look cool."

Silence.

"Actually, Wyatt seems really nice. You seem really relaxed when you're around him. To be honest, six months ago I never could have imagined you getting that close to someone."

I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that… It wasn't only Wyatt who had forced social skills upon me, if anything that was school in general.

"I should have apologized to you for disrupting our plans last time. Taking it easy has never been my strong suit and I pushed myself too hard." He smirked as I continued speaking. "Don't get used to it, though. Once Rei and Max come back to Japan we'll need to jump right into training, especially if you're really concerned about this battle you lost."

Although he nodded, his smile had vanished as he once again eyed last years photograph from the Russian tournament.

"Who is that by the way?" He asked. I had to adjust the way I sat to see what he was pointing at. The picture Riku had given me; the only family photo I had ever seen of myself.

"My mother and father." I admitted. "My little brother gave it to me."

"Hang on, since when do you have a little brother?"

"I think he's five or six so if I had to guess I would say since 2001 or 2002 but if you meant to ask how long I've known about his existence the answer would be only a few months. That's not him in the picture, though, that's just me when I was a lot younger; before my hair grayed."

It wasn't unintentional that my team knew little about my upbringing. By the time they entered my life I had already declared my father dead to me, so basically I had been an orphan by choice.

"So where are your parents now?" Tyson asked.

"No one has heard from my mother in years, so there isn't any way to know if she's still alive or not."

I paused for a moment after speaking, suddenly remembering that Tyson had lost his mother when he was very young. "My father wants to be in my life again and I'm probably not going to get a choice. If I'm not placed with my father by the summer I won't have anywhere to go when the school shuts down. It's between him and a foster home and as much as I hate him-"

"Why do you hate him?"

A thick tension suddenly filled the room midst his curiosity. As I said, my team didn't know this part of my life and until this moment I had always assumed I would keep it that way.

"He left me in The Abbey, Tyson. You don't get to just leave for seven years without a word and then make excuses as to why you're the victim."

Although he didn't respond verbally, he nodded, seeming to at least somewhat understand where I was coming from.

"Being in school with other kids seems like it's done a lot for your social skills, huh?" He smirked. "I think this is the most I've ever heard you speak."

He actually made a pretty good point there… After being forced to open up today via threat of foster care, it seemed like I couldn't stop talking. Not that I was eager to go too deep into my past or anything like that.

"Don't get used to it, I've been drinking." I joked, the slightest hint of a grin forming on my face. "Come tournament season you're gonna get the regular me back."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

I actually don't think that was true. I think most of my team would prefer me to be more like them. Had I been raised in a different setting it was likely that I would be, but at the end of the day my personality isn't going to change with the drop of a hat.

"It's almost curfew." I said. "I can walk you out if you want, you have a ride home?"

"I just have to call my brother."

I jumped slightly when we left the room due to finding Wyatt standing on the other side of my door, looking like a lost puppy.

"You know, you could have just come back in." I said, raising an eyebrow.

"You guys were talking, I didn't want to interrupt."

"Feel free to come downstairs with us." Tyson smiled. "I'm just leaving."

Nodding in excitement that he made no attempt to hide, Wyatt jumped to my side before immediately asking Tyson about a dozen questions about himself. It was the easiest way to his heart: let him talk about himself. I didn't mind since it took any conversation off of me.

I still wasn't sure if he had caught us displaying affection outside earlier. If he had he was keeping it to himself.

After saying our goodbyes we walked back upstairs to my room and sat down on the bed in silence, our fingers laced together gently.

"Can I ask you something?" I said awkwardly.

"You just did."

He was smiling at me in a teasing way, eventually letting out a mix between a sigh and a laugh that really just came out as a happy sounding exhale of air.

"About what Henri said earlier, I keep thinking back on it..." My face had blushed red and my stomach fluttered. I had the words for what I wanted to ask but they didn't seem like they wanted to come out. "Do you see me as your boyfriend?" I managed to awkwardly blurt out.

His face reddened as well, eyes now fixated on the floor instead of on me.

"We've never really talked about it." He shrugged. "I wasn't sure if that was something you were interested in. You never really seemed the type to settle into a relationship, especially not at fifteen."

He was right, it was an awkward topic and not something I was comfortable being open about. Being in a relationship, especially one with another guy, would get people talking about me once competition started. I would be the subject of teen magazines and gossip articles and that wasn't the kind of attention that I wanted on myself. "You sure worry a lot about labels." He smirked, nudging me with his shoulder. "Just be who you want to be. Fuck what the rest of the world thinks."

Smiling shyly, I leaned my head into his chest.

Fuck what the rest of the world thinks.