Wyatt spent most of the week avoiding me, which wasn't anything I could blame him for after how I had treated him. I was an asshole and I deserved it. I couldn't even really spend time with him over the weekend seeing as I had contacted Kenny about needing repairs and was planning on confiding in everyone about what had happened.

He had gotten back to me quickly, excitedly informing me that Rei and Max would also be flying in this weekend and suggesting that I meet up at the airport with everyone. Personally a public airport wouldn't exactly be my first choice in regards to a meetup location but I guess complaining about it isn't going to do me any good either. Reluctantly I agreed.

After I changed clothes and painted my face, I took an extra bit of effort to knock on Wyatt's door, which currently had the word cock sucker written on it with permanent marker. He opened it without bothering to ask who was there, appearing somewhat surprised to see me. That or he wasn't used to seeing me with my face painted while at school.

"Hey." I said awkwardly, unable to think of anything else.

"You going somewhere?" He asked, eyeing me up and down for a moment. I blushed while his eyes scanned me. "You got a new outfit."

I had recently abandoned my black and red tank top and instead wore a purple turtleneck which I had resorted to cutting the sleeves off of. I now wore then as arm length gloves instead. I had also switched my skater shoes out for military style boots and was trying to get out of the habit of wearing a scarf everywhere even though I had no intention of actually getting rid of my scarf.

"I've gotten taller and lost a lot of muscle mass, my training clothes from the last tournament don't fit me very well anymore." I shrugged. I hated how thin I had gotten… I had never had much of an appetite but after losing my training regiment my grandfather had helped create for me and being off of the unidentified pills he had insisted I take I had lost a lot of weight. I could see my rib cage at certain angles and it wasn't exactly what I would call flattering.

Wyatt didn't say anything for awhile, instead gazing sadly at the ground in front of him.

"I'm sorry I hit you." He eventually let out, noticeable sadness in his voice.

"I deserved it." I shrugged. "I was being an asshole." An awkward silence filled the air as I expected him to say something else, when he didn't I decided to break the tension myself. "I don't want something happening to you because of me..." I admitted, hiding my eyes behind my thick mass of bangs. I could actually use a haircut sometime soon.

"That isn't the problem, Kai." He sighed, taking hold of my hand gently but still not looking at me. I wished I hadn't been wearing gloves, I wanted to feel his skin on mine. "It's not your job to decide my life. You can't just try and control me like that and then expect me to be the one to take on all of your drama when you need a shoulder to cry on. It's not fair to me."

"I'm trying." Was all that I said. It was true whether he understood it or not, I was trying. I was really trying, but there was no middle ground to agree to, it was a black and white situation. "I'm meeting up with everyone today, I wanted to invite you along."

Smiling shyly, he pulled his hand back.

"You go talk to your team and figure out what's going on, okay? I have some homework I need to catch up on, just keep me posted."

I nodded as he closed the door on me. It was clear that he didn't want to be around me today, that was easy enough to figure out, I had thought the option of seeing my team might get him out of his room, though.

I guess not.

Stepping away from the door, I stuck my hands in my pockets and walked to the elevator, going downstairs and out the door. If we were really supposed to meet at the airport I would need to take the bus, I couldn't walk there like I could Tyson's house.

I walked outside, scanning my ID and still somewhat amazed that it actually worked. I made a mental note to tell Kenny about that sometime, I hadn't actually hacked anything but it definitely seemed like a story that he would get a kick out of. Not that I currently planned on being social.

Actually I was a bit disappointed we weren't meeting at Tyson's, as it was surprisingly nice outside for still technically being winter. The grass was starting to thaw and not much was needed other than a hoodie unless you were one to get cold easily, which I had never been. A positive aspect of growing up in Russia.

The sun felt warm on my face as I walked, trying to focus on the sound of my boots on the gravel sidewalk and ignore the sinking feeling that resided in my chest.

Wyatt didn't understand… He had been in danger, that guy had been stalking us and if I hadn't been there to grab him when he fell there was no knowing what could have happened.

Worse, I did know what could have happened.

He could have been killed and it would have been all my fault.

I didn't speak as I approached Tyson and Kenny, their female classmate who I had met before also with them. Instead I gave a brief nod before pulling back and finding a comfortable spot to lean on, which ended up being a pillar. They didn't pay me much attention, at this point used to my antisocial tendencies. The only one to actually acknowledge me was the girl, Hillary, who only did so to inform me that she was pretty sure she had the same top as me.

That was probably information she could have kept to herself.

Tyson was trying to hide his giggles, secretly loving my embarrassment. Thankfully the attention was pulled from me quickly at the sound of Max yelling our names, stopping just shy of Tyson's feet before taking notice that there was a girl with us.

"Hello," He put on the charm quickly, giving a polite bow and extending a hand. "I'm Max, I don't believe we've ever met. I'm sure I would remember meeting someone as cute as you."

I rolled my eyes. Nothing like Max being Max.

"Hillary Tachibana." She introduced herself with her own bow, deciding against the handshake. Smart move, ever since Maxie hit puberty it was best to avoid touching his hands, you didn't know where they had been.

"How was your flight?" Kenny asked, always the polite one.

"Long. I didn't have to entertain Charlotte this time, though. If you've never had to change a diaper at 36,000 feet you can consider yourself lucky."

"Rei should be here soon too." Tyson said, looking over Max's shoulder as though expecting him to come running at the mention of his name. Instead his eyes caught me, still moping on my pillar. As the others continued to rekindle he approached me, putting a hand on my shoulder somewhat delicately. "What's up with you?" He asked. "You're being more Kai-ish than usual today."

I actually gave him credit for noticing that something was off, me staying in the background wasn't unusual and most people didn't pay it any attention.

"I'm fine." I shrugged, pocketing my hands.

"I figured you'd bring Wyatt along."

I blushed slightly, hoping my paint hid it well enough where he wouldn't notice. I didn't dignify him with any sort of response, instead avoiding eye contact and trying unsuccessfully to make myself as small as possible. Fucking growth spurt ruining all my plans.

"My competitive life and my personal life are separate, none of this involves him."

He seemed to catch that I didn't want to talk about it, instead giving my shoulder a slight squeeze before going back to where Max was still badly attempting to flirt with Hillary, but not before looking over his shoulder at me.

"I'm telling you dude, no one is going to think differently of you."

Again and again everyone seemed to be missing the point. I had begun accepting that part of myself, I was attracted to boys and there wasn't anything I could do about it. Honestly saying that I was attracted to guys didn't even feel completely correct. The main thing that drew me that direction was my lack of attraction toward girls. I couldn't really tell if a girl was cute or not, breasts were just balls of fat that happened to be bigger on women than men. In reality there was only one person who I truly felt what I would describe as sexual attraction toward, and currently it didn't seem like he was interested in talking to me.

I remained lost in thought until I heard my name called as Tyson yelled that Rei was off the plane. Taking my back off of my small pillar of sadness that I had claimed I walked with them over to where he had landed, finding him rather easily in the crowd of people. Most people didn't have hold onto their hair along with their luggage.

I didn't respond much at his hello, mostly grunting in acknowledgment.

"Nice to know Kai is still Kai." He smirked, turning to continue a conversation about how shitty airlines were while also attempting to be his polite and proper self.

As they spoke I took a moment to lose myself within the crowd, hoping to wander away for just long enough to take a smoke break. I had started up again after my argument with Wyatt and was now up to three or four a day, given I wasn't even sure if that was a high amount or not. The nicotine relaxed me enough to focus while still keeping me levelheaded, unlike pot or alcohol.

I walked away successfully, sneaking out the first door I came across and leaning my elbows on a concrete fence meant to help separate the sidewalk from the drop off zone. Pulling the pack out of my back pocket, I slipped a cigarette between my lips and lit it successfully, breathing it in deeply before pocketing the lighter. Nothing inside of me felt right… my emotions being gradually replaced by a numbness that I hadn't felt since before our tournament in Russia. I didn't want to go back to that… I didn't like the person who I was back then.

I had the quiet to focus on at least, a positive aspect of being at such a small airport.

"I thought you said you didn't smoke?"

I jumped slightly, surprised at Tyson's thin smirk. He looked at me as though he had caught me doing something bad and was excited about seeing me get in trouble.

"Mind your own business." I answered bluntly, inhaling again before blowing smoke out my nose.

"How do you even manage to get cigarettes? You're only fifteen."

"So are you, last time I checked."

He shrugged.

"Only for another month." He leaned next to me on his elbows, watching the traffic and letting a wave of silence envelope us. I didn't really feel like being lectured about my life choices right now. Instead he just stood with me as I finished my cancer stick, flicking the flame out and turning around to enter the building once again. "It happened to Rei too." Tyson continued, catching my slightly off guard.

"What did?" I asked. Had Rei also picked up a nicotine habit? If he did I honestly didn't even remotely care.

"The hooded bladers. They beat him too, a younger kid. Rei said he couldn't have been older than eleven or twelve."

"Last time I checked, no one beat me." I reminded him. I had made it clear in my email that our match had ended in a draw and that he had run off somewhere, claiming he would be back again to challenge me and quite overconfident that he would win next time.

"Knock off the ego."

"That's a bit ironic coming from Tyson Granger, isn't it?" I scoffed.

"If you and Wyatt are fighting you don't need to take it out on me." He responded bluntly, not giving me much expression. My face warmed either in embarrassment or in shame.

"We aren't fighting." I said. It wasn't a lie, we weren't fighting. He was tired of me though, I could feel it. I had a habit of closing off the world around me, hiding within a wall I didn't want to escape. That wall held the real me, a self conscious and shy child who hated everything about himself. Who couldn't even look at himself in a mirror without feeling disgusted.

"Does it have something to do with that classmate of yours who outed you?"

"That blog is relatively harmless, nothing that ends up posted there is going to gain a huge amount of attention. I can't do anything about it anyway, no one knows who writes it and I don't think anyone really cares enough to ask. Besides, I'm not the one they're trying to get a rise out of, Wyatt is the one who they torment."

Tyson raised an eyebrow.

"The red head with the fancy camera phone. The one who was taking pictures of you. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that he's the one running the blog, there wasn't anyone else taking pictures over there, let alone pictures that ended up online."

He had seen someone taking our picture that night? So had Tyson seen me kiss him and just kept it to himself? Had he known since that night? The red head with the fancy camera phone?

Haru!

I turned immediately, telling Tyson that I would be right back and running off to somewhere more private before pulling my phone out of my pocket. Wyatt didn't pick up, something that was more unusual for him. Maybe we were fighting and I was just too dense to realize it, caught up in my own drama and only thinking about myself… I resorted to sending him a text message.

I know who runs the stupid blog. I'm not sure if we can really do much about it, but it might be a first step in getting him to leave you alone. I'll talk to you when I get back.

As minor of a problem as it was, I knew the blog was something that bothered him. Henri had mentioned recently that one of the latest polls to go up had said to check yes if Wyatt had ever offered you a blowjob for money and that the results were extremely exaggerated. Even though I was finding myself starting to question if he had been honest with me in regards to how many people he had actually done that to… He had told me it was only a few people but both Emile and Henri seemed to imply that it had been a lot more than that.

Taking a moment to light one more cigarette, I made my way back to my team.

That blond muscle head wasn't the only one about to pay for his crimes.

I was finding it hard to concentrate back at Tyson's house, instead choosing to stay back from the circle they had formed in regards to strategies and what the hooded bladers might want with our Bit-Beasts. Instead I sat cross legged with my back pressed against the wall, thoughts currently focused less on the challenges we would be facing and more on the fact that Wyatt still hadn't texted me back.

It was official, I had turned into a needy teenage girl.

Still, our current reason for getting the team back together involved practicing, which meant that I would be able to take on someone who was neither a beer can or Wyatt as soon as Kenny was finished making repairs to my blade, which had taken a lot more damage than anticipated. As much as I was looking forward to being able to practice against opponents, the idea also made me feel shitty about the way I had treated him when he had offered to practice with me…

"So, how's the great Kai Hiwitari been since the last time I saw him?"

My thoughts were interrupted by Max, who now sat in front of me smiling. I raised a confused eyebrow, he was well aware I wasn't one to make small talk.

"I'm fine." Was all I said in response. Actually, as of lately it seemed to be all I said to anybody who asked that question.

"Nice to see you with your triangles again." He giggled, referring to our last encounter where he had failed to even recognize me out of uniform. "Honestly, you just don't feel like Kai without them."

"Do you need something?" I asked.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Although he still smiled, he appeared to slowly get more uncomfortable, unsure of how to talk to me. "I mean, I found some stuff online regarding your… personal life. I didn't share it with anyone or anything like that, I just… figured I'd see how you're doing."

I blushed harshly, quite confident that he was referring to the fact that there were currently pictures online of me kissing another guy, even though it was only on the cheek, and gossip articles debating if I was gay or bisexual and if I had a boyfriend.

"That's not really any of your business." I grunted, wrapping myself around my legs and turning my head as not to look at him.

He didn't speak for a moment, causing a slight tension in the air as I was quite confident that my statement had hurt his feelings. He should know better, it was only a year ago that I had really even started being nice to any of them, he knew I didn't talk about my personal life.

"I guess not." Max said eventually. "I just figured I'd ask. Rumors happen all the time, about all of us. There's no real way to know what's true or not so most of the time it's best to just ignore them."

"So ignore them then." I shrugged.

He put a hand on my shoulder, something that seemed to be a common occurrence as my team ignored the normally well known rule of 'don't touch Kai, he doesn't like it'.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew that you can talk to us, you don't always have to be so closed off. I'm not gonna ask you if anything being said online is actually true or not, but if it is we're still here for you."

Hang on, seriously? Was this entire thing just Max trying to find a way to tell me that he didn't care that I liked guys?

I didn't answer him, instead trying to hide my shame as best I could before eventually choosing to get up and go back to school, telling Kenny I would return the next day for my blade. I needed to talk to Wyatt; apologize for being such an egocentric jerk.

Quietly I walked back to the dorms, taking in nothing but the sounds of the world around me and making a mental note that I needed to fill out a form to get my window replaced or at least cover the hole up.

Making my way to my room, I pulled my key out, stopping just before unlocking my door and freezing in my tracks. There was no anxiety thumping in my chest right now, only sadness and shame as tears began welling up in my eyes just enough where they didn't actually run down my face, but they were able to at least temporarily hide the graffiti that had been carved into my door with either a key or a pocket knife. Unlocking my door I pushed it into the back of my mind, trying to pretend that it would be gone tomorrow while knowing full well it wouldn't be and trying to ignore the flashes of shame as my realization played back and forth in my head, causing a lump to form in the pit of my stomach.

Faggot