I am actually pretty iffy about this chapter. Not my favorite so far.
When Tala woke up in the morning, he had a splitting headache and his left arm felt dead. His head was hanging down the side of the bed, so his neck felt painfully stretched too. When he struggled with himself and opened his eyes despite the headache and the blindingly bright light, he found himself in Mariah's room, on her bed with the window thrown wide open. Kai was cuddled into his side, with his head on his arm, which was why it felt dead. All in all, it was a pretty crappy morning, even without the memory of what had happened in the pool last night.
His throat felt sore and dry and when he tried calling out for Mariah, he found his vocal chord won't co-operate with him. Kai was still snoring and didn't seem like he would be waking up any time soon so he reached out and started blindly fumbling for his cell phone. When his fingers did collide with a device, he found it was Kai's. He shot a quick missed call to Mariah's cell, then put it away and closed his eyes and within two minutes soft footsteps sounded outside the room.
"I had been planning on screaming at you both till you woke up, you know." The sow had the guts to sound conversational, and even slightly put off, as if that wasn't a downright demonic thing to do to her hung-over best friends.
Tala tried to glare at her but found himself quite unable to open his eyes fully. He was very grateful when she drew the curtains, though.
"Uh, I got water?" She said from beside him and Tala grunted, somehow hoping to communicate that he couldn't move till she removed Kai from on top of him. She sighed, placed something on the side table and crawled over their legs to Kai's side. The bed creaked under them and the redhead felt like screaming at it to shut up.
With some effort, Mariah managed to shift Kai away from Tala, then came back over to his side and supported his aching neck while he righted himself. Holding out the glass of water once he was upright, she questioned. "Aspirin?"
He nodded and she left the room only to return minutes later with the blessed drug. He popped it and chugged down the water in one. Two minutes of neck exercises later, he found himself capable of displaying normal human communicational mannerisms.
"Thank you.", he whispered to her and placed a light kiss on her cheek. She smiled.
"What the fuck happened to you once Ray left? You were downing rum like you were hoping to shut down a liver!"
Ray…
"I don't wanna talk about it Mariah, not right now at least."
"Oh? Only, he was wearing your shirt when he left and I… I just assumed…-"
"Yeah, you were wrong. Now can we please eat something before we talk about this? Who all is down there?"
"Just Michael and Queen… and Lee."
Tala shrugged. "Guess it is his house after all."
"We made pancakes and waffles. I ordered donuts too."
"Trying to fatten me up?"
"More like, woke up with such a bad taste in my mouth, I couldn't resist the idea of sugar. Should we wake him up?" She jutted her chin out towards Kai.
"Yeah, he did say he had somewhere to be today."
…
Half an hour later, the three of them plus Michael and Queen were sat around the kitchen table. The smell of smoke and alcohol still lingered, along with the disgusting, dull stench of puke left to fester overnight. Bottles, bongs, and other random items littered the floor and furniture. The only place they had bothered to clean up was the kitchen. Mariah had called in cleaners to help them with the tidying up later in the day before her parents returned that evening. Currently, they were all trying their best to ignore the mess around them. Kai was squinting at his phone since he hadn't got his spectacles, Michael and Queen were talking in dull groans and whispers and Mariah herself was shoveling donuts into her mouth. Lee was in the living room. Tala hadn't had to cross him, for which he was thankful.
After gobbling half a pancake and one donut, he felt a lot more talkative, and in the mood to vent.
Giving Queen a significant glance, which she easily interpreted as a call for some privacy, and left them alone to go for a swim, he dived into his tale from the night before.
When he was done with it, they were glancing at each other in apparent nervousness, not knowing what to say. Except for Kai, who folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his seat with a decisive frown. "He is clinically insane, obviously."
"No, no he isn't. Frankly, I don't like what a mess it would have become if we had actually slept together. When everything would have come out in the open he would obviously lose a lot of respect for me."
Kai gave him a bored glance. "That is not what I meant. It's the whole going back to Bryan thing. He's either mad or masochistic."
"Or maybe more loyal than both me and Bryan."
"Regardless,", Michael intervened, running a hand through his bangs. "How much longer will he take to realize Bryan isn't good for him? He needs to take his head out of his ass, really."
"Do you want me to talk to him, see if he's alright?", Mariah offered.
"Yeah, you do that. Don't mention me." Mariah, who had already been moving to get her phone, froze at that.
"Why not?"
Tala shrugged as nothing came to mind, except for the pain he felt at that blatant rejection the night before and how he couldn't actually stand anything like that again.
"What, you are giving up on him now?"
When in doubt, remain silent.
"Tala you can not!" Michael burst out. He seemed two seconds away from slamming his fists on the table too. Tala pressed his fingers against his temples.
"He made a decision last night when he left. The ball is in his court now. I am not giving up on him, as such. All I am saying is I am done chasing behind him. After last night, I can't keep pretending to be his friend when I want so much more and that is exactly what will end up happening if I go after him now."
"Bitch, how?! Ray knows you like him now!"
"He knew from the beginning, Michael. Keep up, for fuck's sake. And don't scream. My headache is coming back."
There was silence for a few beats and then Kai said, "So you're what? Throwing in the towel now? Was that all the game you had in you or is this about your swollen ego, Tala? Because you need to put that shit behind you. We're not sixteen anymore."
"This is hardly about my ego! I'll admit it wasn't the best feeling to be rejected like that but that's not what this is about. I have already made my move and it's his turn now. Chasing him would feel like forcing his hand and going back to him would be accepting his rejection and continuing to be 'friends', neither of which I can do now."
"That's the stupidest logic I have ever heard. You're the one with the feelings, you're the one who must do the chasing."
"Like your logic is any better?", Mariah intervened. "I agree with Tala, here. What is the point of the chase if the feelings aren't being reciprocated?"
"But Kon clearly reciprocates his feelings! Was I the only one who saw how he looked at him?!"
"No, Kai we all saw it! And that is exactly why he has to realize it on his own! Like it or not, we have to wait for Ray to come around and see things for himself now. Crowding him is only going to make him run away!"
"And what about his feelings? Does he just sit down and suck it up now because your little friend is a pussy ass bitch who doesn't want to be treated right at all?!"
"No! What part of letting Ray make the next move sounds like abandoning the feelings on a whole to you?!"
"Every single bit!", their eyes were narrowed at each other now, jaws clenched and fists bunched up. "What if he never does anything? What then? If he never makes a move, do we just give it up?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there.", Mariah folded her arms over her chest. Her tone was offensively dismissive like she was talking to a child who's point was invalid and stupid.
Fun fact about Mariah and Kai: they had known each other the longest, and despite the very frequent fights and differences in opinions, they were actually pretty close. This also translated into the fact that when they fought, they went straight for the jugulars, every time. Kai's face went from detached to cold and Tala instead of getting mad about how these entitled pricks had somehow made this about themselves, could only exchange a nervous eye roll with Michael.
"No you won't. This stinking egomaniac would sit down on the very first step across that bridge and pout like a helpless three-year-old and you will be there to coo at him instead of trying to help him because you're just as much of a push-over. But I guess you had to be a special brand of spineless, to have stuck around in an emotionally and physically abusive relationship for three years."
Uh-oh. Bringing up Mariam was a no-no. Always had been.
In scary resemblance to Kai, Mariah's face grew just as icy and Michael reached out a hand to her, which was promptly smacked away.
"I was seventeen and I have learned my lesson since then, Kai. It seems you haven't though. You still think not taking a bloody hint and chasing behind people who will never in their lifetime look twice at you like a fucking lapdog is something that's done, don't you?"
Michael stiffened. Kai's jaw dropped open and Tala had the good sense to wrap his arms around Mariah and start hauling her out of Kai's reach.
Voices rose simultaneously, Kai and Mariah were hurling profanities at each other, Michael was trying to hold Kai back from lunging at the pink-haired girl while screaming in his face about how he needed to calm down. Tala was presently trying to shove Mariah out of the door while shouting at her to stop shouting. It was rather futile and only added to the cacophony but it made him feel like he was doing something.
It took about twenty minutes to get Mariah to her room and Kai to Tala's car so they would leave each other in peace. Michael decided to drive to the flat with Kai and Tala offered to stay back, check up on Mariah and collect their belongings.
Having found Queen and thrown her in to help calm Mariah down, Tala made his way back to the kitchen. He needed another Aspirin. He knew it wasn't safe to mix too much of it with the alcohol in his system from last night, but the screaming match had kicked his headache back in full gear. He would never survive the day if he didn't do something about it. Something other than clawing his brains out, which was his first instinct right now.
Fifteen minutes later, and he had only succeeded in finding something even more unsettling, aka Lee Wong.
When Lee had walked into the kitchen, Tala was basically hanging out of a cupboard, with his head and arms stuck inside and his body balanced on his toes while he rummaged around for the bloody drug. That's why he never noticed his entrance. When he did resurface, the older Wong was leaning against the countertop and making his way through a donut with a very, very disturbingly feline grin on his face.
A girl in school had once commented being checked out by Mariah sometimes felt akin to being eye-raped, not because her expression was ever unpleasant, but because the Wongs were blessed with particularly piercing hazel eyes. Now that he had a pair trained on him, Tala knew exactly what she had meant.
Despite that, he faced even vivider golden and red pairs almost daily. To say he had thick skin, was something of an understatement.
Cocking a nonchalant brow, he huffed out, "Won't know where you keep the Aspirin, would you?"
Lee's grin sharpened, somehow.
"You look a lot different with your hair tied up."
"I wonder why." Tala rolled his eyes.
"Different enough for me to recall where I know you from."
Shaking his head exaggeratedly, he stage whispered, "Years of being friends with Mariah, I'd bet?"
Only getting more amused, Lee chuckled. "How long have you and Ray been together?"
Feeling a sense of doom settle in the pit of his stomach at the abrupt and rather pointed change of topic, his expression quickly switched into a frown. "What the hell does that matter to you?"
"Only he said it had been quite a while, the better part of the year or so. Lucky, you. Have no idea what I'd do to get back into that."
He felt a growl build up in the back of his throat. "Don't speak of him as if he is some sex toy."
A bushy black brow crawled up Lee's forehead like a hairy little bug and Tala decided people should practice raising brows in mirrors every day before subjecting others to their pathetic attempts.
"Like you are any better? I was being stupid back then and I screwed it all up." Theatrically, Lee started stalking closer to Tala. The redhead would laugh if only to piss the other man off, but something told him he was better off keeping his mouth shut now. "But guess what I NEVER did, Red? Even I had the decency to not stick it in random dudes while he was home waiting for me."
His head was throbbing, and his heart following. A shiver started along the base of his spine and crawled up to his shoulder blades. He felt his countenance freeze in what could loosely be described as a poker face. Side-effects of being friends with Kai for so long.
"What the fuck do you mean?"
Hazel eyes remained trained onto his. "Fear, if you can't see it on his face, you will read it in his eyes." Lee dropped his grin and stepped back, hand going to fiddle in his pocket. He retrieved his cell phone, stabbed the screen with his thumb a few times and offered it to Tala.
He recognized the faint sounds emerging from the device before his eyes even encountered the images being displayed. A dismayed groan froze in his chest as he was brought face to face with how rabid they had looked fucking in the open that night.
Tala couldn't help the hand that rose and ran through his fringe as a variety of scenarios about how Ray would react to this clip ran through his mind. It'd completely shatter the man. His mind didn't even register when he lunged to snatch the phone from Lee's hand, who jumped away with a spry leap and a Cheshire grin, putting a good few feet between them. He was almost at the threshold now.
"You really think I would be stupid enough to not back this baby up? Have to say though, you have good taste, man."
"Make a habit of recording people's sex lives, do you?"
"Only when they are being displayed for me to see in my own fucking yard."
He felt his fingers twitch. "What do you want, Lee?"
"What do I want? Oh, silly kid. You aren't paying attention, are you? I am offering you something, a chance that is. To end things with Ray, on your terms. Can't imagine how it'd break him to have to see this. In short, get out of my way on your own or I will bloody throw you out myself."
…
Tala barged into Mariah's room with his eyes narrowed in fury. After having said his piece, Lee stalked out of the kitchen and he was left standing there wondering why everything had suddenly crashed down around him.
Now, as he theatrically threw the door open and stomped in like a petulant child, his anger levels only climbed higher. There was only one solution to his problem right now, namely, the problem's sister.
"We are in major trouble." He announced. Queen quirked a brow and opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the girl sitting on her lap.
"I suppose planning a funeral does qualify as trouble.", Mariah remarked casually, as she continued stabbing Kai's photograph with a sewing pin.
Sighing, Queen covered her hands with her own and drew them apart, so she could no longer sabotage the picture, which was already beyond the point of saving. Well, sad. It was a really nice picture too.
"Mariah, look up and listen to me or else there will be a funeral and it won't be Kai's."
"Are you threatening me, Ivanov?!"
Before Tala could formulate a response, Mariah was grabbed by the waist and flipped down on her back by her now mildly pissed looking girlfriend. "You need to stop now. This is becoming childish of you."
Well, Queen didn't talk a lot but she sure could get her point across.
An intense staring competition then ensued and Tala told himself it had a point, all to avoid snapping and bashing their heads together. After two minutes, the girls straightened, with Mariah looking a little less put out than before. Had Queen promised hot, wild sex in their little eye-to-eye? He didn't care.
"Lee has video of me and Bryan."
"What video?", Queen asked.
If there was a complicated set of expressions designated to explain the video in question was homemade porn, Tala didn't know but he figured his grimaces must be close, for within ten seconds the girls had understood and were appropriately panicking.
"Where did he get it?"
Tala answered that with a non-committal shrug. Mariah rolled her eyes.
"Are you sure he wasn't bluffing?"
"He showed it to me. Told me he backed it up and everything too."
"Do you know if he's sent it to people?"
"I don't know and I don't care, Mariah! He threatened to show it to Ray if I don't 'break up' with him."
"That asshole.", Queen muttered.
Stomping on the urge to start pacing and ranting, he forced himself to walk towards the window and push it open, hoping for a breath of fresh air. What he encountered was a clear view of the pool, and was simultaneously assaulted by the memories attached to it. The emotions he had felt last night, he would do anything to feel again, and he would make sure he didn't let Ray run away this time.
"You have to come clean to him."
He turned to find Mariah glowering at him. His own features scrunched up into a scowl.
"Don't you see? There is no other safe alternative! This has gone on for far too long, Tala and it needs to end NOW."
"I know and I will, but this is not the right time for that! We need to be focussing on dealing with your brother for god's sake!"
Taking a deep breath, Mariah made an effort to erase the aggression from her features. "Leave that to me. You go home, for now."
"Excuse me?"
"I am not in the mood here, Ivanov. I will find a way to deal with Lee but you need to get out of my sight and think about what you will do next. It's about time you paused and thought about this mess you have made."
He wasn't a fan of that idea, mostly because he wasn't a huge fan of thinking about his muck-ups in the first place (if he did, it won't have got to this point at all). This was exactly what the pink-haired girl in front of him had warned him against, so he didn't really have a lot of ground left to stand on. Waving a resigned farewell, he went to go hunt for his phone and shoes.
…
The drive back was unpleasant, to say the least as he fully realized the consequences of Ray watching that video. The more he dwelled on it, the more hopeless the situation seemed to become. He couldn't actually help it, could he? He couldn't break up with a man he never dated. He couldn't give Lee what he wanted and judging by Ray's behavior last night, he wasn't going to dump Bryan. When Lee found out who Ray was actually dating, it would change nothing since Bryan was in the video too. So no matter what he did, the outcome would remain the same.
The only solution was to change Lee's mind, which he had no idea how he'd go about doing.
Once again, he was left to depend on his friends to sort out his mess for him. Well, Mariah did say she'd deal with it. All he had to do was figure out how to deal with Ray himself now.
But with everything that was going on how could he ever face him again? He had put him in a severely risky position after swearing to all gods above and below that he would make sure nobody hurt him ever again all because he had no brains and an excess of testosterone.
As his eyes rose to the clock, Tala felt his temper sky-rocket again. Bryan had left the house god knew when in the night and hadn't bothered texting him at all. Even after all traces of a relationship disappeared from their lives, they made sure to be in-tune with each other's schedules for the sake of the dogs. Right now it was nearing two in the afternoon and Tala had no idea how long they had been alone if they had been given breakfast in the morning or taken out for a walk and with everything put together, it was annoying the shit out of him.
He had just about finished packing his bags up. They stood by the door as he sat waiting on the couch. His own house wasn't fully furnished yet, but his room was ready, along with one bathroom, which Kai had had the foresight to furnish first, in case he needed to move out in an emergency. He decided he could make do with that, he just couldn't stay with Bryan at all.
After about half an hour of idle waiting, Tala felt a small shudder make its way through his body as the lock turned and the door was swung open. The familiar figure of Bryan made through.
The first thing those bright eyes locked on to were the suitcases, then Tala, and without a care in the world, Bryan moved to dump his keys and take off his jacket.
Feeling like a fool for expecting anything else in the way of a reaction, Tala rubbed his palms together and poked his cheek with his tongue. "So… we're over."
A dry chuckle followed his announcement. "Honey, we have been over for quite a while now."
It was weird how energy came and went sometimes for that pissed him off.
"Oh yeah, when did that happen? When we stopped fucking or when you started fucking him? Because you know, I am confused." Tala scoffed and had the intense pleasure of watching Bryan's shoulders stiffen. He opened his mouth, supposedly to ask a question, but Tala cut him off.
"Don't ask me how I know. It's irrelevant. I have known long enough since before we had sex last time. What else did you think I was pissed about?"
He enjoyed how the center of power shifted so quickly and Bryan was the one left feeling wrong-footed all of a sudden. Licking his lips in nervousness, he dropped down on the couch next to Tala.
"Why did you…"
"Stick around, then? I wish I could say it was because I was waiting for you to do the right thing and tell me, but I knew you weren't going to. I stayed because I was looking for a way to take revenge on you, fishing around for a great big plan. I guess I just got too comfortable over time. This was good what we had and I just…-" He ran out of bullshit to spew. Couldn't actually tell him why he stayed now could he?
"Why end it now, then?"
"I found someone."
A small, unsure smile made its way on to Bryan's lips. "I don't know how I feel about that."
"Good thing it doesn't really matter, huh?"
An expecting pause grew and they both found themselves entirely incapable of wrapping their heads around the absurdity of this situation. They weren't mad at each other, they were feeling a whole lot of… nothing. It was even more confusing on Tala's end because shouldn't he be enraged now that he finally got to confront Bryan about this? He guessed all this time of knowing the truth had sucked out the righteous anger and replaced it with relief, that he didn't have to pretend anymore. If anything, he felt lighter than ever.
"I have to admit, this is not how I imagined this conversation would go." Bryan broke the silence first.
"So you did think about leaving me, at some point."
Bryan's eyes narrowed and Tala enjoyed the tension crawling back up his frame. "Yes, because I won't leave him. I am in love with him."
"Are you?"
There wasn't a second of hesitation. "Yes."
"Why not dump me then? I thought maybe you were confused and didn't want to decide but if that's not the case why not just leave me and be done with it? I would have understood Bryan you know that. So why in hell did you have to insult me like this?"
Bryan exhaled and linked his fingers together. He had a humongous frown sat upon his brow, and he suddenly seemed exhausted. "I needed you. He didn't let me touch him until very recently."
A jolt of shock ran through Tala. Very recently? How recently? Had Ray crawled back to Bryan and had him finish the job last night? How far had they gone? Ray never mentioned anything happening after he gave Bryan a blow. Was that what this jerk was talking about? A million questions raced through his head and he found his fists clenching in annoyance.
"So you kept me around for dick. And what about him?"
"I think things are better now and…-"
"That's not what I meant." He couldn't bear to hear about Ray being together with this bastard. "How can you sit here and say it to my face that you love him when you've been willingly cheating on him all this while all because he won't put out?"
Bryan started to come up with some sort of defense but Tala wasn't done yet. "Does he know about this? Couldn't you have talked to him if this lack of sex was such a huge issue for you? Did you tell him you're still sleeping with me? Or is he sitting at home thinking his loving and caring boyfriend waited for him?"
A slight growl reached his ears. "You keep your nose out of this Tala. I don't need to explain anything to you."
He sat back. "Oh, I think you do. You have a lot of explaining to do. Tell me what sort of love is it that lets you think it's okay to go and fuck other people behind your partner's back because this makes me question everything…-"
"There weren't no people, Jesus! It was just you, singular. Don't make me sound like a whore!-"
"Were there others between us? Did you crawl into pubs and suck random cocks every time I wasn't in the mood? Will you find somebody else to fuck now that I am not available? Because seriously Bryan, don't say you're in love with him when you can't even be loyal to him. He just has your attention now and once you grow bored of him like how you grew bored of me you will find another somebody to 'fall in love with', somebody you 'won't leave', somebody who would replace him and make him another Tala. Do NOT say you love him. You don't know what love is."
…
Two hours later, Tala was still sitting exactly where he had been when Bryan came in, with a busted lip and a painfully sprained ankle. Bryan had become super angry super fast after that. Looking back, Tala knew it was obvious they were going to come to blows so he shouldn't have been surprised, but he was unwilling to shoulder any blame whatsoever. It was Bryan who landed the first punch and as is obvious from that little rant, Tala wasn't quite as over the bastard's betrayal as he thought either.
A pull on his shoulders snapped his attention and he looked up at Kai, who was currently supporting most of Tala's weight as he tried to carry him out of the door and into his car. The redhead had originally thought he broke his foot and didn't know how to go about moving it so he called Kai.
The Russian had already taken his bags and his pups, and was currently trying his best to not huff and puff or let any signs of general discomfort escape him as he half-carried Tala downstairs. The Lee situation, the Bryan situation and everything he had missed out on had been broken down for the slate-haired man who in turn informed Tala Ray sounded fine when Mariah called (apparently she did it in front of Kai after they made up [?]). He told her not to worry, that he was just nursing a bad hangover at home and that everything was perfectly alright.
Tala debated whether he should tell Kai about his new-found suspicions of Ray and Bryan having done it together, but found himself disinclined to put those despicable words together. He just shrugged when Kai asked if anything else had happened.
The next morning saw the redhead giving in to the urge to pace his worries away, even on a less-than-healthy foot but it seemed to be working some tension out of his system so Kai let him keep at it. He reached to call Ray multiple times that day, but remembered the excruciating sensations of rejection and pulled back. He won't call him. He would wait for him to make a move.
By the time the two friends went to bed, Tala had ended up taking down all his pictures with Bryan and sending Ray a follow request on Instagram.
He woke up to texts from Lee demanding he sped up whatever it was the older Wong had assumed he was doing. He also realized that the request had been denied that night.
…
On his third day at Kai's, Bryan came by to drop a few things of Tala's he had left at their place. He was sporting an impressive set of hickeys visible all over his neck. Tala barely kept himself from tearing the bruised skin off of his body.
…
By the end of the week, he was told Lee had been dealt with. Apparently, Kevin was enough of a dude-bro to Lee for them to share passwords, but also enough of a decent human to help Mariah when she asked. Or maybe she held him at knifepoint, they weren't really sure.
…
Days grew hectic as the shifting began. Countless shopping trips, a shit-load of bickering and many long days ending in pizza and beer, went into making the house Tala's dream space. All through the habit of checking his phone every fifteen minutes never shifted. There were no texts or calls from Ray, and he never picked up when Tala grew the balls to call in a drunken stupor one night.
These days he was never truly alone, somebody was always at his side. Somehow even as responsibilities piled on top of each one of them, they made time to see each other frequently enough one would assume they were still high-schoolers. Kai had recently met a cute American boy he won't tell them anything else about and was 'hanging out' quite a lot with him. Mariah had started a new job downtown. Michael was gunning to throw a huge something (he just couldn't figure out what) for his first anniversary with his girlfriend Emily. Tala himself was busy with the move and all the registrations that came along with it. Yet, somehow they saw each other regularly and it was a huge source of comfort to the redhead.
All that pleasantness aside, there was an empty space in his life that Ray and Bryan had previously occupied. For the last few months, his life had been a whirlwind of emotions, first with the anger and hurt because of Bryan, then the sweet breathlessness of the onslaught of feelings Ray made him feel, the bitter pain of rejection and the final little spat with Bryan. Hell, even the brief terror Lee instilled in his mind was more fulfilling than this lack of… everything.
He had never known that lack of action could feel this heavy. All those times he had read dorky quotes on the internet about silence sounding loud and now that it was his turn to experience it, he felt it was deafening. It was like everything had hitched to a stop and he didn't know how to un-pause his world now.
"You really should call him.", Kai told him one night when they all sat sipping beer in his yard, two weeks after Mariah's party. To his surprise, the pinkette nodded in agreement.
"I did, remember? He didn't pick up."
"Don't act like you don't have any way of approaching him whatsoever." He rolled his eyes.
"Look, before you start saying this is about my ego, it's not. I was and still am angry and…" he had to swallow before he could get the word past "hurt but I am not childish enough to give up on a good thing because of that. I really do not want to pressure him anymore. If he wants to, he will contact me. I have done enough damage as it is."
"You are missing him.", Michael stated.
He refrained from giving them another eye roll. "Yes, thank you. I thought that was obvious…-"
"I don't think you got what I meant, mate. You are missing him."
Tala frowned but his message tone interrupted him. He fished the device out from where it was half-buried under his butt.
One new text message from Ray Kon.
His heart picked up a loud hammering pace in his chest and his brain cells fizzled away. In an unprecedented panic, he stuffed the phone down his pocket. With his mouth hanging open and his eyes blown wide, he turned to face his friends. "Fuck."
"What happened?" Kai questioned in a vaguely worried and clearly amused tone.
He could feel his jaw move, but words weren't coming out, only short, quick, and frankly melodramatic gasps.
"Was that Kon?"
"How do you know?"
Kai smirked. "I have my ways."
"Wait, what is going on?" Mariah demanded. "More importantly, why aren't you reading that?"
"Good question." He made no move to retrieve the phone from his pocket.
"Oh, we have no time for this!" Mariah stood up from her chair and came over to Tala, roughly thrusting a hand in his pocket and shoving the device in his hands again.
"Read it!", Michael urged.
With shaking fingers (why were they shaking again? This wasn't a big deal. He was cool.) he slid open the chat.
"I don't know if you have used black magic on me because I won't put it past you but if I don't see you right now I will end up shooting someone in the head."
What he could feel was an extremely dopey grin made its way onto his face. "Guys, I gotta go."
…
All nervousness had escaped his system as Tala excitedly knocked on Ray's door. He needed to be at his most charming for the guy. This could make or break the deal and he would be damned if it broke it.
The door was pulled open to reveal a bleary eyes Ray in sweatpants and… Tala's shirt.
All sleep rushed out of Ray's features the moment his eyes registered who stood on his doorstep. As he saw Tala take in his outfit, conscious hands rose to fist the shirt he didn't own and a slight blush tinted his shocked face.
"I didn't think you'd actually come." He said, by way of explanation.
Could a very commonly deep and rusty voice with no remarkable lilt or grace actually soothe you? Because Tala didn't trust the things Ray's voice did to his heart.
With a smirk, he stepped into the house, shutting the door behind him. "Well, orange really isn't a good color on you."
A grudgingly surprised chuckle escaped the smaller man. His eyelids swooped low and just when Tala thought he might faint, he threw himself at the Russian, securing his arms tight around his neck and drawing them both impossibly close. With a sigh of relief, Tala's own arms wrapped themselves around Ray's waist, his eyes closing by their own accord.
And whatever Gods controlled Tala Ivanov's life, finally hit un-pause.
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