Chapter 34

His father was yelling at him. It had been a while since Killer had seen him so pissed. When Kid had entered the principal's office, he had seemed to be in a pretty good mood, but that quickly changed when he heard what Shakky had to say.

Suspended. He was suspended for the next week. And it was his last chance too, Shakky had made clear. If he'd be in another fight, he would be kicked out of school for good.

Killer ignored his father's angry shouting, and sighed as he got into the car. Kid had told him he would have to leave his bike at school until he would return. Throwing his bag on the backseat, he got his phone out of his pocket to check if he had gotten any messages.

"Killer!" His father grabbed the phone out of his hand before he could unlock it. "Are you listening to me?!" He looked angrily at him from the driver's seat.

"Give that back." Killer tried to steal his phone from his father's hand, but Kid pulled it back before he could reach it. "I heard you!" Killer tried to convince him. "You're angry, I get it!"

"Don't throw away your future like this!" Kid narrowed his eyes. "You're way too smart to be kicked out of school."

"It's not like I want to be kicked out!" Killer defended himself. "You always taught me not to take shit from others! These guys were talking shit, so what's the problem?!"

"The problem is that you're now suspended!" his father yelled back. He slammed his fist down on the steering wheel.

"Ugh, it's just a week," Killer said. He wasn't that bothered by it, if he were honest. He was more bothered by the fact that he needed to do only one little thing wrong to get expelled. "Give me back my phone."

Kid was seething. "Just a week?! Don't take it so lightly!" He looked at Killer's phone, and Killer was hoping really hard he wouldn't try to unlock it and see any preview of messages he might have gotten. He had a feeling Penguin might have send him a text.

"You know what?" his father continued. "A week not at school, means a week of not seeing your friends. You're grounded until you can go back to school."

"What?!" Killer exclaimed. "You can't do that!"

"Watch me!" Kid looked at him with furious eyes, making it clear to Killer there was no point in fighting it.

He looked angrily back at his dad. More than a week without seeing Heat, Wire, or Bonney… He hated that. But not being able to see Penguin… Shit, that was even harder. "At least give me back my phone."

Kid looked at the phone in his hand again, but then tossed it into Killer's lap. "Fine. You can let your friends know what happened today, but from tomorrow on, your phone will be in my possession. Not seeing your friends also means not calling them." He started the engine and drove off.

"You're kidding, right?" Killer said, feeling like he was treated incredibly unfairly. "I'm a teenager, I need social contacts!"

Kid snorted. "You'll survive a week. Gives you time to think about the consequences of your actions."

"Okay, but the weekends don't count," Killer stated. "I'm suspended from Monday till Friday, so that's also when I'm grounded."

"You're suspended from now on and you can go back the Monday after next week. Shakky was very clear in that. I know you still had an hour of school to go today," Kid answered. "So you're grounded from now until that Monday. Two weekends included."

Killer groaned. This was so unfair! Mohji and Cabaji had gotten what they deserved! Why was he punished for that both by school and by his father? He would not survive that long locked up at home; he'd be killed by boredom. "Can I at least go to my guitar lessons?" he asked. If he could, maybe he could meet Penguin there, or his friends. That would mean he'd only have to wait until Thursday.

Kid thought about this for a moment. "You can, but I'll drive you."

Killer gritted his teeth. He hated his father right now.

It was only when he was alone in his room, that he dared to check his phone again. He had been too afraid Kid would yank it out of his hands again, or at least look at his screen if he'd open it.

He had two messages: one from Penguin and one from Wire. The first read, 'Hope it's not too bad. Call me when you can.' It was obvious Penguin was worried about him. Wire's text said, 'Wanna go out tonight?'

He replied to his friend first. 'Can't :( I'll call you later.'

Then he selected Penguin and started a video call. He wanted to see his face, especially if it would be the last time he'd see him in over a week. He sat down on his bed, with his back against the wall, in such a way that Kid wouldn't be able to look on his phone screen if he decided to barge in.

"Hey, babe," Penguin answered his call. He seemed to be sitting on his own bed, and Killer noticed that he was not wearing his cap.

Killer smiled sadly at him, already missing seeing Penguin in real life. "Hey," he greeted.

Penguin looked worriedly at him. "How bad is it?"

Killer sighed. "I'm suspended."

"Shit," Penguin said. "For how long?"

"The whole of next week."

Now, Penguin sighed. "Well, it could have been worse. At least you're not expelled."

Killer nodded slowly. "No, but I've gotten my official last warning."

"That sucks…" Penguin said. "You probably shouldn't have hit them, though… Even though they did deserve it."

"Don't– Wait, you heard what they said?" Killer asked, a little surprised. Penguin hadn't shown any sign that he'd heard Mohji and Cabaji talk about him.

"Of course I heard them, Kill, I was sitting right next to you," Penguin answered. "But… you should just ignore them."

"They were talking shit about you!" Killer brought in. "And your father! And…"

"And you? They were saying all kinds of homophobic things… Did you feel attacked by that?" Penguin asked him.

Killer thought about that for a moment. It had made him angry, sure, but had it made him feel personally attacked? "No, not really," he answered honestly. "I snapped because of what they said about you."

Penguin smiled. "That's sweet, but I don't need a knight in shining armor to save me."

"I know," Killer answered. "I wasn't saving you… It just made me really angry."

"Well, try not to let them get to you next time," Penguin said, but Killer didn't like the idea that there would be a next time he had to hear their homophobic shit. He'd hoped those guys would have learned their lesson now.

Penguin added, "You should know they were the only ones in the class who thought like that, though."

Killer shook his head. He knew what Penguin was trying to do. He was trying to make sure the opinion of two guys wouldn't make it so that Killer would stay in the closet forever. It wouldn't, of course, Killer knew he had to come out at some point, but it did make him realize now was not the right time yet. No matter what Penguin said, he knew they weren't the only ones who thought like that. "You don't know that."

"But I do. They literally put it up to a vote when you were gone. Cabaji asked who else thought pansexuality wasn't real, and they all voted in my favor. Well, except Mohji and Flampe, of course, but who cares about them? Everyone else literally disagreed with them," Penguin explained. "Most people are a lot more accepting than you think."

Killer stared at his boyfriend. Had that really happened? Didn't Penguin make this up to make him feel better? He couldn't know for sure, of course, but even though he doubted it had happened like that, he decided to believe Penguin for now. "If you say so…" He sighed. "But Peng, there's something else I gotta tell you. Suspension isn't the worst punishment I got."

Penguin looked at him with big, worried eyes. "What do you mean?"

"My father is pissed. He grounded me," Killer explained.

"No!" Penguin looked as if he went through the five stages of grief really quickly. "For how long?"

"Until I can go back to school. Including the weekends."

"Noo!" Penguin let his head fall back against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment. "My father has weekend shift at the hospital next week; I was hoping we could spend some time together again with just the two of us."

"Shit." Killer groaned. "That would have been a too good opportunity."

"Fucking shit. Let my dad talk to yours, maybe he can convince him to shorten your punishment."

Killer raised his eyebrows. "Why would my dad listen to Law?"

Penguin averted his eyes. "Well… you know…" he pursed his lips. "I bet he can be convincing."

"Convincing?" Killer asked confused. Then he shook his head. "Anyway, no. There would be no good explanation of why Law would ask that of him. He's got nothing to do with this. You don't even have anything to do with this, as far as my father knows."

"You mean you haven't told him what really happened?"

"Not in details, no." Killer shrugged. Wasn't that obvious? He couldn't tell that to his father. "I just said they were talking shit and being simple minded bullies."

Penguin sighed. "I can't go… nine more days without kissing you… That is, if I'm allowed to kiss you that Monday you return."

It felt like someone was clenching Killer's heart in their hand. God, he didn't want to go that long without kissing Penguin either. "It gets worse," he said. Fuck, why did his father do this to them? "My dad is gonna take away my phone from tomorrow on. He's too old or too dumb to realize I can talk to my friends on my laptop as well, probably, but if he catches me calling through Discord or anything, he'll probably take that away as well."

"Shit, I thought my father was bad…"

Killer ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, when my dad gets angry, he gets really angry." He was quiet for a bit. "But we can still chat, at least… and… I'll think of something. He's gotta go to work too, so maybe I can sneak out. I'll let you know. But just… don't call me. It would be impossible to explain if my father saw that."

"I won't call you," Penguin promised him. "But be careful. We wouldn't want your father to get even angrier."

"I'll make sure I won't get caught."

"If I don't hear from you by Monday, I'm coming to visit," Penguin warned him.

Killer chuckled softly. "I'll send you a message every day."

"I'll hold you to that."

Both of them smiled.

"Oh, I almost forgot there was something I wanted to talk to you about!" Penguin suddenly said.

Killer looked curiously at him. "What, about that drawing you were still going to show me?" he teased. Killer still wanted to see that.

He saw Penguin blush. "No…"

"Oh, come on, show me," Killer pushed. "It can't be that embarrassing. I won't laugh, I promise. Not even if it's a half-naked elf with melon tits and hard nipples you can see through her clothing."

Penguin started to laugh. "What the hell do you take me for? Geez, Killer, it's not actually a fantasy character. I just said that to get Hewitt off my back." The image of Penguin got blurry as he seemed to get up to do something.

"Then what is it?"

Penguin groaned, and after a few moments he sat down again. Killer saw him open his notebook. "It's you, Killer. I drew you." He held the drawing up to the camera so Killer could see it.

Killer's eyes widened as he saw the drawing. He could imagine that was him, Penguin was very good at drawing, but he had never seen himself from this angle. He had not expected it to be a drawing of him naked though. "So that's what I look like from behind?" Killer felt flattered. It looked really good. Better than he could imagine he actually looked. "I'm pretty sure my ass doesn't look that good, though."

Penguin removed the drawing from the camera and looked at it himself. "You're right," he said. "Your ass doesn't look this good… it looks better."

Killer snorted and shook his head. "When did you draw this?"

"Yesterday."

Killer frowned. "Did you take a photo of me when I wasn't looking, that you used as reference?"

Penguin chuckled. "No need, my memory is clear enough."

"Huh," Killer said impressed. "I know I've said this before, but you're really good."

A blush covered Penguin's cheeks. "Che, you're biased," he quoted Killer's own words back at him. "That reminds me… This was not what I wanted to talk to you about." He put his notebook away.

He grabbed his phone from wherever he had put it, and seemed to be thinking of how to continue. "So… I started that TikTok account for you." He looked at his boyfriend for a reaction.

Killer felt like there was more to come. "Oh, okay… and?" he said, slightly nervous. He didn't know why, though. He didn't care. He didn't even really want the TikTok account. He had just given in because he hadn't been able to resist Penguin's puppy eyes. He didn't mind, per se, but he didn't feel the need to put the videos out there either. And yet… if people didn't like his music, he would feel a little hurt.

"And… well, I put two videos out right now," Penguin told him. "The first one did well, but the second one… It's got over three thousand views already!" Penguin began to get excited. "You've got over a thousand likes on both videos in total and already over a hundred followers! Killer, people love you! Let me read some of the comments." He was obviously looking at something on his phone, and then he began to read out loud, "'Awesome!', 'He's good! Would love to see some more!' and this person commented on the second video as well: 'Amazing! Tell him he's got a fan!' Others say: 'This is lit!', 'Epic', 'Better than the original', and my personal favorite: 'Adding this guy to a song makes it two hundred percent better!'" Penguin smiled broadly. "'Cause they are right, you do make any song two hundred percent better. Then there are a few comments that have only emoticons like flame emoticons, star eyes emoticons, rock-on hands, etcetera. One's got heart eyes though; I'm keeping my eye on them. I don't allow groupies," Penguin joked.

Killer chuckled. "Good, you keep my groupies in check. I don't want them either." He was quiet for a few seconds, but then he spoke again. "But… is it a guy or a girl?"

Penguin frowned at him. "Does it matter?"

Killer smirked. It was so easy to tease Penguin. He shrugged. "Just curious."

"Their profile says they're nonbinary."

"Hm, I can't say I got a lot of experience with nonbinary people," Killer said. There was one out nonbinary person at their school, but Killer didn't really know them. And besides, just because he wasn't attracted to that specific person, didn't mean he could not be attracted to nonbinary people in general. He decided to tease Penguin some more. "Are they cute?"

Penguin's frown deepened. "I know you're teasing me, but I don't like it." He pouted.

Killer couldn't suppress his laughter. "You're too cute."

"Stop calling me cute, dammit," Penguin said with a blush on his cheeks, while still frowning and pouting. It was adorable.

Killer couldn't stop laughing. He hated it. God, he hated his laughter so much, but Penguin didn't seem thrown off by it at all. If anything, he seemed to like it. "Stop making me laugh!" Killer said, when he finally got some air back. His cheeks hurt.

"Then stop laughing at me!" Penguin said, but there was a smile on his lips again. "I'm not doing anything!"

Killer chuckled some more, until he finally calmed down again. He felt relieved though. He hadn't expected to get so many reactions on his videos, but he was glad the reactions were good at least. Though, if there were negative reactions, Penguin might just not read them to him. But he didn't want to know if there were any, honestly, so he didn't ask about it.

"There is another guy, though – he isn't a groupie as far as I can tell – but he's asking if you do requests," Penguin spoke again. "He's challenging you to pick the cheesiest, least metal song you know and turn it into metal."

"Hmm." Killer sucked on the inside of his lips while thinking. That didn't seem impossible, and actually sounded like a fun challenge. "I'll think about it. Sounds fun."

"Cool, I'll let him know. It sucks that I can't come to visit you though," Penguin said. "I mean, beside the obvious reasons, I now can't film another video either. Only if you'd want that, of course. I know you said you only wanted me to post the ones I already had, but now you've got fans… Still, no pressure, of course," he hastened himself to say. "Only if you enjoy it."

Killer smiled. He thought he might enjoy doing some more. He liked playing anyway, so it wouldn't make a difference if Penguin filmed it or not. "I'll think about it," he said again. He heard something at the stairs, and suddenly was reminded of his father's presence in this house again. He kept a close look on the door. "I gotta go now though. I'll text you later."

"Okay," Penguin said, sounding a little sad. "Killer?"

"Hm?" Killer looked at the screen again, and saw how Penguin brought his fingers to his lips, placed a kiss on them, and then moved them towards the camera as if to place the kiss on him. God, that was the cheesiest thing ever. Killer was annoyed with himself when it made him feel all giddy inside. Still, he couldn't help the feeling. He smiled, and brought his own fingers to his lips to mimic Penguin's gesture.

Penguin smiled back. "See you soon… hopefully."

"See you soon," Killer said, as he brought his finger towards the button that would end the conversation. "I love you." He ended the call.

Wide eyed, he stared at his phone screen, as realization set in.

Shit.

What the fuck had he just said.

TBC~!

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