Guest Reviewer: I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like my little twist, but I honestly had a feeling that it would throw some people off. I'm naturally a bit of a nihilistic person and tend to turn the tables in a bit of a dramatic way, I also wanted Kai to have a reason to have a good heart to heart with Max and open up more about his home life. I honestly never saw Max's family as well adjusted, mostly because of how cruel his mom is to him during the first season.

Honestly it's the same reason that I've largely neglected having Ray be a part of this story at all, I legit just cannot figure out how to write his character, especially because I want to acknowledge how strange of an upbringing he had. I toyed a lot with the idea of having Ray have no idea how to acknowledge Kai's sexuality and unintentionally be slightly homophobic (in an insert gay stereotypes way) because I just have kind of a morbid sense of humor, but I know he has a huge fan base, particularly in the yaoi community, and I wasn't sure if other people would find it funny.

Anyway, I go through a lot of my plot points with Inyoface in order to get advice and I've never thought about that fact that I have some points that I completely neglected to explain at all, so here's a brief rundown:

The reason I keep saying the championships are every two years is because the vforce championship is so minor of a plot throughout said season. Instead of acknowledging it as a world championship I'm instead acknowledging it as a smaller tournament charity event. Therefore, this story does take place during vforce, but in a world where the vforce championship is on a very small scale. I hope that helps with some of the confusion. I apologize that I never bothered to explain it .

Thank you to all my readers and reviewers

I woke up in Wyatt's bed our first day back at school and although I didn't remember falling asleep, there was little in the world that compared to the feeling of his skin on mine as I rested my head on his chest, the heat of his body more than enough to warm me without the need for a blanket.

Thankfully we didn't sleep through his alarm today, meaning we would have no issue in regards to making in downstairs for morning attendance and a bite to eat before beginning what would be the last week of the school year.

I think most of our classmates were excited about the upcoming break… I, on the other hand, felt a weight in the pit of my stomach like I had swallowed a bowling ball. I didn't know where I would be going from here, but I knew I would have no say in it.

"You okay?" Wyatt asked, brushing his fingers through my hair as I stared contently at nothing but the wall in front of me.

"I'm okay." I sighed.

Leaving his warmth behind, I pulled myself out of bed, grabbing a spare uniform that I kept in his room and changing in silence.

"It's weird to think that it's the last week of school already. It feels like you just got here."

His sentence made me think… my mind bringing me back to my first day of school and my first impression of him. Never in a million years would I have imagined that he would quickly become the best friend I ever had.

"I wish I could stay here during the summer." I sighed, throwing a blazer at him while he stood up to change. Catching it, he smiled sadly at me.

"You're gonna visit me, right?"

"Of course I am." I had never even considered not seeing him during the summer. "I'm not going skiing, though."

"There's more to do in Colorado than ski." He giggled. "Although the idea of dragging you to a resort sounds hilarious, you'd probably fall flat on your face."

"Idiot." I flicked him on his temple, smiling back at him before planting a gentle kiss on his cheek.

Wrapping his arms around my waist, Wyatt rested his head on me, taking hold of my shoulders as he pulled our chests together in a tight embrace.

"I'm so glad you were sent to school here..." He said. "I couldn't imagine going through this year without you."

It was true. I had gone through a lot of changes this year, changes that I wasn't sure I would be able to overcome without him by my side.

Finishing getting dressed, we left his room, walking downstairs and finding our usual table. As of recently Dmitri had begun joining us, slowly coming out of his shell and now much more confident in his Japanese abilities, even though his accent could still be hard to understand at times.

Currently our friends looked at us rather awkwardly, Avery scratching at the back of his head and trying not to crack a smile.

"Could you guys make it less obvious that you were just talking about us?" I asked without hiding my annoyance.

"It's not like we can help it." Henri giggled. "Everyone is talking about you two right now."

"What are you going on about?"

Just as the question escaped my lips, an unknown senior approached us, grabbing both of our shoulders rather aggressively.

"You two are wanted in the Deans office… now." He announced.

We looked at one another, all talking within the cafeteria now coming to a halt as we stood up to follow him. What was this about? Had someone told on us about being in each others rooms again?

As we got to the exit the silence was interrupted by the sound of Haru's voice.

"Faggots!" He yelled.

Cue laughter…

xxx

Tension rose as we walked into Dean Nakamura's office and I found Ono-San standing next to him at his desk. Both of their eyes burned daggers and I felt the flush of embarrassment fill my face, still unsure what exactly it was that we had done.

Gesturing for us to sit down, we obeyed.

"Would you care to inform us what you boys were doing over the weekend?" He asked.

"The same thing everyone else was?" I raised an eyebrow. "We went on the end of the year field trip."

"Yes, we know that." Ono-San had her fingers pinched to the bridge of her nose, bringing her glasses up to her forehead. "We're interested in the details of what happened during the field trip."

She opened her briefcase that she had sat on the desk, taking something out and holding it a tad too closely to our faces. "Would you care to explain why you two are making out on the cover of a tabloid magazine?"

And so we were.

I now sat face to face with my own picture, my hair pulled into an awkward attempt at a ponytail while I shoved my tongue down Wyatt's throat while flipping off the paparazzi.

Blushing deeply, I said nothing.

"Hang on!" Wyatt shouted. "We made the cover?" He sounded rather proud of this accomplishment.

"Not only did you make the cover, but there's a nice little article written about you as well. It appears that you too were seen at a club together, a club that I would like to point out that you are not at the proper age to be at, and the current circulating rumor involves a bouncer who was interviewed saying that Kai was caught performing oral sex on you in a public bathroom."

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

This could not be happening!

"Furthermore," Dean Nakamura interrupted. "Would the two of you care to explain why you're currently in our computers database as having permission to leave school grounds outside of a group setting? Am I recalling correctly that neither of you are day students or seniors?" He didn't wait for us to answer. "Hiwitari, your father is on his way here to get you. Smithwright, you're parents are in the process of flying in and should be here by tomorrow morning."

"Meaning what?" I asked.

"Meaning that you're both in the process of being removed from school grounds."

"You can't expel us over a rumor!" Wyatt yelled. "You don't have proof of any of this!"

"You both have permission to finish the remaining week of school as day students with the commendation of your parents but as of now you are no longer allowed to remain boarding. Relationships between students are forbidden and I will not have the schools name put in jeopardy over this. You will not be returning to our premises next year."

This was my fault… this entire thing was my fault. We wouldn't be front page news if I hadn't kissed him, now my mistake was bringing Wyatt down with me in the worst way possible.

"Wyatt didn't do anything!" I yelled, getting quickly onto my feet. "He tried to avoid the guy with the camera, I'm the one who kissed him in front of him, punish me, not him!"

"Sit down!" Ono-San yelled, Wyatt putting a hand on my shoulder just as my father entered the room.

"Okay," He said. "I'm here, now would you mind telling me why my son is being removed from the premises?"

I blushed as Dean Nakamura explained what was happening, concluding that not being raised by my dad did not, in fact, make it less embarrassing to sit there and listen to someone explain to him that I had been caught with Wyatt's dick in my mouth.

"He will be allowed to finish the last week of school." He explained. "Under supervision and as a day student, he will not be allowed back in the dorms and will not be allowed back here next year, though."

My father gave me the face I recognized from Max's dad… He was disappointed in me.

"Come on." He said gently, touching me lightly on the back. "Let's get you home."

"This is my home, and I'm not leaving Wyatt here."

"What happens to your friend is out of our control." Ono-San sighed, shaking her head at me. "Right now our orders are to get your things and escort you out of the building, if you can't listen to that order the authorities will need to be notified."

Wyatt touched his hand to mine.

"I'll be alright." He said. "I'm not gonna let you get in trouble for me."

Reluctantly, I got up, not taking my eyes off of his sad smile until the door closed behind me.

It was official.

We were fucked.

Xxx

My father didn't speak as we drove to his house, my things packed in an unorganized fashion in the backseat. The radio remained off and all you could hear was the sound of the traffic around us.

The things my classmates had said and done to me this year were nothing compared to the level of humiliation that I currently felt. Realistically speaking, I had never been in this sort of trouble before.

Pulling into the driveway, I refused help with getting my belongings into what was going to be my room for the time being, as least until I was able to convince someone that I wasn't willing to stay here… Maybe I couldn't go back to my school, but I could find a new one, and besides, I was still hoping to get emancipation once I turned sixteen in a few months.

For now I set my things on my bed, throwing the hood of my sweat shirt over my head and curling up like a small child. I was struggling not to cry. I didn't want any of these people to catch me crying.

The weight of my fathers body brought me down slightly on the mattress, his hand touching my back like he thought he might break me.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" He asked.

Ignoring him, I grabbed a pillow from the bed and covered my face, letting out a childish grunt as I continue to lay there pouting. If only my team could see me now… I was pathetic.

Clearing his throat, my father tried once more. "Are you sexually active?" He asked.

"I'm not talking about this."

"I'd just like to make sure you're being safe is all."

"It's not like I can get pregnant."

He ran his hands through his hair awkwardly. It didn't seem like either of us wanted to be having this conversation, besides, I wasn't even sure what I had done even counted as being sexually active, all I had done was give him a half assed attempt at a blow job.

"Your body is going through changes, its normal to have sexual urges."

"Please stop talking about this…"

It was more than a little late for him to suddenly be trying to have the sex talk with me. I was just starting to understand the strange sensations that I had begun feeling since Wyatt came into my life and I already fully understood the concept of sexual desire. Even before I had realized my feelings toward Wyatt and men in general I had experimented with touching myself.

"That boy who you're close with…"

"His name is Wyatt." I corrected. "He's my boyfriend."

"He hasn't pressured you into doing anything you didn't want to do?"

"No!"

Actually, in a way it was almost the opposite. I was the one who had asked him to stick it in me. He was the one who insisted I wasn't ready yet.

"It might be a good idea to take you to get tested, just as a precaution. We have a sexual health clinic nearby that specializes in adolescents who are in same sex relationships-"

"Weird how no one ever suggested that when I came out of the Abbey." I interrupted. "Wyatt actually cares about me, if there was a chance he wasn't clean he would have told me."

"I'm not suggesting he doesn't, but if you've already had sex for the first time it would be good for you to have someone to talk to about your health."

"I'm not having sex." I admitted.

He touched my arm, extreme caution put into every move he made.

"I don't want to keep you from him, but..."

"But what?" I shot up, removing the pillow from my face and glaring at him. No one was going to be keeping me from him, I assured that. I would run away if I had to.

"I want you to understand that if you have him over at all there will need to be rules put in place. You aren't going to have the freedom that you had while in school."

I blushed, relaxing my face slightly as I looked deep within the awkwardness of my fathers eyes.

"You would let him come over?" I asked.

"Yes, but under conditions. I would ask you to keep your door open."

My anger and humiliation were slowly being replaced with sadness at the realization that my father wouldn't be leaving this time. The government was giving him a second chance and here he was taking it, but why? Why had he suddenly decided to come back? No one was forcing him to take responsibility for me, he could have told everyone off when they tried to find him, he could have suggested they put me with a foster family or make me eligible to be adopted.

"Why did you come back?" I asked, now refusing to look at him as much as I could.

"I wasn't going to allow you to become an orphan."

"I was already an orphan."

A tear rolled down my cheek. I had accepted long ago that my father wasn't ever coming back for me; that he didn't want me. How could he take from me what it had taken me so long to accept?

"I never planned on leaving you that day."

"Like that fucking matters… You never came back. I waited years for you to come back."

"When your mother left, we never saw her again. My father had already made it clear that he had no problem with making his grandchildren disappear, by taking you from the Abbey I would be putting you in danger. I had to keep you safe. The farther from me you were, the safer you were. The few times I tried communicating with my father he was more than happy to make that clear."

"Safe!?" I jumped out of bed. "In what world was I safe? Do you have any idea what they did to me?"

"Kai…"

"Just stop, okay? I'm so sick of being lied to. You left because you didn't want me; you didn't care what they did to me. Until the world tournament you didn't even have any proof that I was alive."

"Why would I ever consider that you weren't?"

"Because not all of us made it out alive."

Silence enveloped the room as he looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights. Even now, after being back in my life, my father knew so little about what happened to me during my last few years in Russia. He would never understand.

Pulling my shirt up and over my head, I turned away from him, revealing the disturbing scar that took up a chunk of my back, distorted coloring and poorly healed skin creating an unpleasant image in order to constantly remind me what had happened that day.

"What is that?" My dad asked awkwardly, touching a finger to the blotchy pattern.

"It's where they branded me." I mumbled. "I was eight."

He took hold of my arm, he touched gently down at the permanent marks that coated my skin.

Lighters, matches, switchblades, knives…

"What did they do to you?" He asked in horror.

"Since when do you care?"

"You're my son-"

"What the fuck does that matter?" I clutched at my bangs tightly, I had a headache and I wanted to be alone. I didn't want any of this. "Stop trying to suddenly be my dad again. I don't want you back in my life and I don't need you back in my life, either."

Putting my shirt back on, I stood up, throwing my hood over my head before pocketing my hands. Thanks to social services I couldn't even leave; I couldn't go anywhere to calm down.

"I didn't know..." He attempted to explain poorly.

"But you did know."

I was laying down again, hiding myself as much as I could, making myself as small as possible like I used to do when I was a child, when I needed to make sure no one could find me. "You knew that I had broken bones in the Abbey, you knew I had come home beat up before… You could have stopped it and you didn't. My mother tried to get me out, what did you do?"

He brushed a hand through my bangs.

"I remember noticing when you started becoming distant… you stopped talking for the most part, which was strange because you were always so eager to argue with anyone you disagreed with. You loved picking fights when you were little."

I merely grunted in response, aware of the irony it caused.

"You were easy to comfort, though." My father continued. "You loved being held, even when you started insisting you were too old for it I think you still secretly wanted to sit on one of our laps and snuggle."

"I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I'm not cuddling with you."

He laughed sadly.

"That was the first time I noticed something was wrong. You never wanted to sit with us anymore, you didn't like holding our hands when we walked. Suddenly you seemed terrified at what anyone who was watching might think of you."

"Wasn't that what you wanted? For me to be a man?"

"Someday, I suppose… but you were only a little boy."

"You agreed to send me to the Abbey because you didn't want me growing up to be the faggot that I ended up becoming anyway."

"Don't call yourself that..."

"Like you've never thought it..." My eyes were burning as I struggled to hold back tears. I didn't feel like myself anymore, I felt like I was small again, finally able to get the courage to tell my father what I really thought about him.

He didn't respond, he knew there was no point. Everything I said was the truth that he was trying to hard to deny. "How did you know?" I asked.

"Know what?"

"How did you know I was gay?"

He brushed my hair back behind my ear, wiping the tear that had fallen down my face.

"I don't want to sound like I'm stereotyping, but you were kind of a fruity kid."

"Gee, thanks..." I rolled my eyes.

"It was cute. We started hiding your mothers make up once you were tall enough to reach the counter top, it wasn't uncommon to walk into the bathroom and find you sporting a painted face."

This irony was also not lost to me…

"Must have made me easy to recognize during the championship. I'm sure I made an embarrassing reminder."

"I've never been embarrassed by you, Kai."

"I'm on the front cover of a magazine tonguing another guy."

"Which, don't get me wrong, is horrifying to look at, but you're my son and you're so young, I would probably be just as disturbed to see you with a girl."

I highly doubted that…

The sound of the front door opening interrupted our conversation, which I was incredibly grateful for, leading to the sound of Riku screaming my name before plummeting himself into my lap.

He was a lot heavier than he looked.

"Are you done with school now?" He asked, attempting to stand on his feet while also standing on my legs, causing me to have to hold onto his arms in order to stop him from falling.

"Sort of." I responded, making sure to hide my sadness as much as I could. "I have a week left."

Our father touched an arm to my shoulder.

"Kai is going to be staying with us now." He said, causing Riku's face to light up and for me to have to hold my tongue instead of telling him where he could stick that sentence.

"All the time?" He asked.

"Hopefully."

No, not all the time and not hopefully. This was actually just about the last thing that I could possibly hope for.

"I need to make a phone call." I said, setting Riku on the ground and standing up just a tad too fast, I had to take a moment to blink in order to stop myself from getting dizzy.

My father nodded at me, acknowledging that I needed a moment to myself right now while I left the room and went out onto the backyard patio before taking my phone out and calling Wyatt.

He answered quickly.

"Are you doing okay?" He asked, sounding fearful that I would try and kill myself in my fathers new house as well.

"Not really." I responded. "What about you?"

"My parents will be here tomorrow… it's not going to end very well."

He sounded somewhat fearful, something I anticipated knowing that he and his parents didn't have a very good relationship, most of which stemmed from his sexuality. "You should hear the voice message they left me." He faked a sad laugh. "Apparently I'm trying to destroy my families name with my strange teenage rebellion. I just need to find a nice girl and settle down and then we can work on putting all of this behind us. They've even offered to set me up with someone and mentioned that we can take pictures with her as a family so that everyone will understand that I just went through a strange high school phase because I didn't know what to do with the freedom of boarding school."

"My dad just tried to have a gay sex talk with me..."

He started laughing, causing me to blush from the other side of the phone.

"I don't think straight boomers even know how gay sex works."

"I would feel better if I knew for a fact that he didn't know how it worked. I just told him that he at least doesn't need to worry about me getting pregnant."

"So basically you just told your dad you wanna take it up the ass."

I paused, blushing deeper and needing to take a moment to figure out what the hell I was supposed to say in response to that.

"Shut up."

It would have to suffice.

He giggled, reminding me how cute his laugh was.

"Anyway," He continued. "I have a plan for how we can stay together during the summer, so we need to meet up before my parents try and guilt trip me into coming home."

"You're about to be expelled and you aren't eighteen, how exactly do you plan on making it so they don't take you home?"

Even over the phone I could sense the sly smirk that I was sure was taking up his face right now.

"I just need you to trust me, okay?"

I had a bad feeling about this…