I just couldn't rest with all the feels in my head so here's the next chapter in what has to be the quickest update in my history of hence deleted multi-chapters. Hope you like it.
After that fateful day, the bonds between the four were damn near unbreakable. Tala opened up to them over the course of the next five years, building close friendships with them, though he was always closest to Bryan. Mostly because their dispositions were almost the same, but also because the other two were thick as thieves, and didn't seem to need a third party to their adventures.
Kai and Ray never intentionally left anyone out of the loop, but it was obvious that as far as friends went, the two were especially close ones. Their sense of humor, stubborn streaks, intrinsic leadership qualities, and defiance of everything deemed to be 'normal' built up for more similarities between them than they shared with anyone else. An odd glance at the two would point at the fact that they seemed like polar opposites, Ray was charming and social while Kai was reserved at best, and a complete antisocial bastard at worst. Ray seemed bright, quick and calm in the face of adversity while Kai was notorious for his devil-may-care laid back approach to everything. Ray made people feel loved and welcomed while Kai looked at humans like none of them were worth a second glance, except for his three friends.
That was all on the surface though, anyone who knew the two could tell that they vibrated on the same frequency.
So as they unknowingly branched off together at times, Tala and Bryan grew closer as well. Bryan was the first one to know Tala was gay, and the first one to learn of his horrific past. The lilac-haired man was always there whenever the grip of the gone days became tighter on Tala's heart, and he cut everyone off like they were the ones hurting him. Bryan was also the only one to catch on to how his face fell every time Ray and Kai displayed their alarmingly close relationship in an obvious manner.
"They're just really close friends, you know. Those two almost grew up together, coming from the same circle of the social elite.", Bryan would roll his eyes at this point, forever disgusted by the neglect Kai faced at the hands of his family members under the pretense of being prepared to be the richest and the strongest of the aforementioned social elite since he was the sole heir of the Hiwataris. "Kai doesn't like Ray. There's nothing going on there."
Tala watched him become less and less sure of his statements till it was blatantly obvious that there was something going on there.
...
It was the end of vacations and Tala was sitting on his bed rubbing nail paint remover on to his nails when the door to the dorm was thrown open and the redhead looked up to catch sight of a laughing Ray with his smirking Russian 'best friend' following close behind.
He noticed Ray had grown again so that he was almost as tall as himself now and just a couple of inches shorter than Kai. His hairstyle had changed again and for junior year he had taken to tying a ponytail high atop his head, leaving the long raven strands free to flow down his back. Every year he found a new way to do his hair and every year the entire student body went crazy. Well, to be fair, his hair was pretty beautiful, and at least he had remained loyal to his hobo look with shirts over graphic tees and loose ripped jeans. Plus, this year Tala had more than shared Ray's spotlight with his own undercut. He had given up the spikes and let the long red strands be done up in a pony at the back of his head by Ray. He was never going back to the spikes again.
He had also exchanged his lenses for a thin pair of rimless glasses that rested almost delicately on his straight nose. Complete with his usual dark skinny denim adorned with millions of chain accessories, black button-downs or t-shirts with cardigans, and combat boots, Tala quite liked his new look.
Kai, on the other hand, could always be counted on to be spotting edgy looks with turtle neck tank tops and loose cargo pants, always in shades of maroons, blues, purples, or greys. He was so consistent his everyday pictures would be enough to build a theme for his Instagram profile if he ever bothered to get one.
Much like the dark blue and grey ensemble he had on currently, as he gazed at Ray for two seconds longer than he ever looked at anybody before tearing his eyes off and finding Tala instead. Immediately zeroing in on what he was currently doing the slate-haired teen came to stand in front of him.
"Why are you removing that?", he inclined his head towards the wine red color Tala was struggling to remove without tinting all his fingertips pink. Ray had once mentioned how the color was the exact shade of Kai's eyes, to which Kai had responded with a smile. It became Tala's favorite color there and then.
"Yeah, didn't you apply it like two days ago? I thought you loved that color.", Ray commented, sprawling on Tala's bed next to the redhead.
"Yeah I did, and yes I do but I have Geography with Jason tomorrow and he raised hell when he caught me wearing it in the hallways yesterday.", Tala shrugged.
A snort drew his attention to Kai who looked pretty cross all of a sudden. "That's ridiculous. The pink bitch has nails longer than her fingers painted neon yellow and Jason never bats an eyelid."
Ray frowned and his lips morphed into a tight line. Mariah, the only topic of dispute between the two, had been brought up again and just as the Chinese was fixing to retort, Tala interrupted saying:
"Mariah is a girl, Kai."
"That's just fucked up." Ray sat up, his anger at Kai for insulting his crush (and to be honest, Mariah's nails were natural and well-shaped, plus Tala quite liked the color himself, not to mention she was the least bitchy girl they knew) morphing into righteous indignation on part of his friend. "There is not a single rule that says shit about nail paint, much less about boys wearing any."
Jumping off the bed, Ray reached Tala's dresser drawer and picked out a bottle of nail paint. Predictably, he chose golden. Jumping back onto the bed he proceeded to start slathering the paint on to his nails, getting more on the skin than the nail as his two companions watched in transfixed silence.
"Ray, you hate nail paint." Tala pointed out. He didn't even bother pointing out the fact that he could more than deal with the bitch-ass if he wanted to. It was just that he didn't wanna cause pointless drama in a system that was more than likely to favor the asshat over him, despite him being in the right.
"Yes, it's sticky and gross and smelly but I love you, and I can't actually give the asshat a piece of my mind unless he points me out for wearing some." The Chinese teen crinkled his nose as the smell of the lacquer hit his senses.
"You don't have to do that."
"Absolutely not, just like you shouldn't have to give up on things you like to spare others' delicate sensibilities.", Kai snarled and for the millionth time, Tala wondered how he could ever be mad at these two bastards for tearing his heart into pieces every time they so much as looked at each other when they did things like these for him.
...
Truth be told, Tala was never worried that Ray or Kai would not accept his sexuality. Ray was one of the most accepting people Tala knew and Kai, with his hatred for his family and all it stood for, had once punched a senior called Boris for intentionally misgendering and then trying to heckle one of their trans juniors, Max.
So, the coming out was smooth, speckled with apprehension here and there, but otherwise smooth.
"I am gay.", Tala had said without much ceremony and after a silence of about thirty seconds an openly curious Ray had asked:
"So, would you fuck me?"
Tala had felt his expression tighten, and hoped to God this wasn't one of those situations where the straight friends of a gay guy started feeling 'uncomfortable' around him after learning of his sexuality. He had looked to Bryan for encouragement who had merely raised a brow.
"`Cause I'd fuck you.", Ray had continued, throwing him into a loop again.
Smirking, an amused Tala had questioned. "What?"
"Yeah, I mean, it's weird. I'd fuck you but I don't see myself dating you. Like I won't mind touching you, but could I love a guy? I don't think so."
"You might be bisexual, Ray."
"Are you sure? I am not romantically interested in men, but goddamn if I didn't feel like slapping Hiro's ass every time I saw him running in those shorts."
"Yeah, bisexuality has many spectrums. Some experience physical attraction, others romantic, yet others both. It's still valid. I think you might be bi."
"WOW," A smirk had twisted Ray's lips and Bryan snorted. "Cool."
Tala's smile had disappeared again. "Your sexuality is not a fashion statement, Ray. It isn't 'cool' to be one way or another."
"I know." Ray had simply replied. "I just meant that it was cool to have found out something new about myself after all these years."
Feeling a little stupid, Tala had just given a sheepish smile in return for Ray's understanding one.
"Aren't you just a combative little puppy today?" Kai had finally offered his hot take.
Tala had suppressed a shiver at the way those lips curled and heard the words a little belatedly. Only to have to hide a smile at the smirk that had accompanied the word 'puppy'.
Yet, even after having seen the relaxed expression on the face of his friend he was apprehensive about the smirk on the face of his crush. Belatedly, he knew his fears had been stupid. Presently, he had known the quickening of his heart was equally so. He couldn't help the constriction of his chest though, irrational as it was. It had had no reason to exist, but gazing into Kai's eyes Tala couldn't keep the desperation from leaking into his generally calm tones.
"I was worried about how you would react!" He had hoped Kai won't notice that the 'you' seemed to concern him more than him and Ray.
"You should've known me better." So, he did, after all…
"I… I am sorry, Kai." Tala had accepted defeat, something only the slate-haired teen in front of him could have made him do. Said Russian, just put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, still staring intently into his eyes and Tala had the distinct feeling he was missing what the beautiful red was trying to convey.
Till they relinquished their hold on his soul by turning away to respond to Ray who had made a dig at Kai trying to shoot his shot at Tala in lieu of certain developments. The redhead, after three years, had blushed. Bryan had smirked and everything was as it should've been.
Till two months later, Tala and Bryan had returned to the dorm room one day after lunch to find Kai quietly reading 'Hard Times' on his bed. This scene in itself hadn't been weird. What was weird was that Kai's nose had kept inflating and deflating in quick succession, a quirk Tala had quickly recognized only manifested itself when the teen was trying to digest something of relative importance without telling his best friends.
Marching right up to Kai, Tala had put on his meanest voice (which could have made Bryan Kuznetsov cry on a bad day). "Spit it!"
Alarmed, Kai had looked up. "Spit what?"
"Whatever you are trying to keep hidden away. Now, Kai!"
Looking slightly defensive, arms had been crossed against his red-clad chest. "I kissed a guy."
Realization, shock, hurt and ecstasy had traveled down Tala's spine in the same order. Kai had kissed a boy and didn't appear disgusted. Judging by the dismissal in his tone, he didn't need to be worried about it either. Bryan had started openly smirking and nudging his ribs.
Almost bursting at the seams, digging fine nails into his hands, Tala had questioned, "How did that come to happen?"
Kai's defensive stance had only strengthened. "It was a spur of the moment thing, and he was a really pretty guy."
That was when the door had opened, and Ray had entered. In a rare moment of cosmic perceptiveness, it had become clear to Tala. Frowning, he had hailed, "Well hello, pretty guy."
Golden eyes had found red ones, Ray had smirked and Kai had looked away. Neither had even glanced at Tala.
He, in turn, had waited a decent amount of time, so that his exit didn't seem related to the recent developments, before running into the washroom and bursting into tears.
...
"Do you want to have a smoke?"
"Sure." After all, it was the only thing he shared with Kai that Ray didn't intrude upon, given the fact that he ran track and needed to treat his lungs well.
Tala figured he was being unreasonable. He had never told Ray how he felt. His bitterness towards the Chinese was irrational but emotions were irrational, and he, he felt too many of them for the boy who was nothing more to Ray than a fuck buddy.
Again, that was wrong. They were best friends, and Tala hated that too.
Walking with Kai to the abandoned old sports shed, Tala checked his pockets for a light because Kai, on principle, never carried one for some reason. Truth be told, Tala really liked that fact because it meant he depended upon Tala to always be carrying one.
They reached the run-down shed, that at this point only stoners visited. Kai held the door open for Tala and followed him inside, closing the door shut behind him. Rarely anyone could be found hitting the bong this early in the day and Tala was thankful for that. He cherished every moment he could steal with Kai, alone.
They lit up and the redhead watched his companion. Kai looked beautiful with a cigarette between his lips. He would throw his head back and close his eyes while sucking on the stick and inhaling, then open his mouth and let the smoke curl out languidly. When he opened his eyes again, they would be just a bit hazy. Were Tala an artist, Kai with a cigarette would be his muse.
They smoked in silence for a few minutes before Kai said, "They want me back home mid-semester."
The redhead frowned. "Why?"
"It's about time I started looking into marriage prospects apparently."
"But… you're…"
"What? Gay? Yes, but for the love of life, I haven't told my grandfather that." Kai gave him a wry look. "It doesn't matter, he'd force me just like he's forcing me right now. It's not gonna be any different."
"Move out."
Kai chuckled, he had always like Tala's deadpan sarcasm (idealistic as well as unrealistic as it was) and said nothing more.
"Does Ray know?"
"Yes."
Of course.
"So, are you going to…" Tala trailed off. The words sounded foreign, non-sensical.
"Not if I can help it."
Footsteps sounded outside the shed and the door was thrown open, giving way to Ray's body suspended in what can loosely be described as projectile motion. He landed on his back with a painful huff, but the girl on top of him merely giggled before re-settling herself into his arms and beginning to kiss him. Neither of the individuals even stopped to consider the occupants of the shed.
"Let's go.", Kai's tight voice called to his left as he crushed the unfinished cigarette under his boot. Tala rushed to follow him out of their little sanctuary.
Sometimes Tala wondered if he only smoked for the sake of the Russian before he reminded himself that he had been doing it longer.
...
Ray could sense Kai, his moods, his needs, his pain in ways only best friends could, except for when it came to their little arrangement.
Nobody knew exactly when they had started sleeping together but Tala supposed Ray really wasn't to blame. He had long ago made it clear in Freshman year that he won't ever look at a guy romantically and when Mariah had arrived in their Sophomore year, that fact had only been cemented.
Charming as he was, Ray was a classic fuck boy till Mariah Wong had entered the scene. She was a natural brunette with hazel-gold eyes that made you straighten your posture and want to salute. Halfway through the first semester, she had dyed her thick butt-length Botticelli curls a pastel pink shade and defeated Bryan in a debate competition, and Ray Kon was never the same again.
To be fair, Mariah was a pretty kickass girl. She was smart, funny and strong-willed, and never put up with bullshit. Apart from that, she was kind and honest. There were not a lot of people who hated her, and those who did could be counted upon to be the bad sorts.
Except for Kai.
Kai hated her because she made Ray fall for her. Ever since he first noticed her that day after the competition, Ray had waxed poetic about her every night in the dorm rooms without fail, had been hooking up with considerably lesser people and trying everything he could to win her over.
She just stood there and smiled at his shenanigans like butter won't melt, every time.
That always put a smile on Kai's face and Tala was stuck not knowing whether to feel happy for Kai, upset for a visibly down-trodden Ray or sorry for his own pathetic self.
Except Mariah was his only friend outside of the group and he loved her a lot, so he mostly just felt confused on her behalf, because he was sure she liked Ray just as much as he liked her, or Kai liked him.
Yes, it was supposed to be just sex but Kai had gotten his feelings involved and fallen so quick it was comical. Though they had kinda seen it coming, and were surprised how Ray hadn't. Having been raised by bastards made Ray the first person who had ever shown kindness and warmth to Kai, which meant the Russian already had a soft spot for him and no matter how much they said it was 'just physical', the intimacy they shared was bound to affect someone who had never known any.
So Kai, mad at himself for having caught feelings despite knowing Ray won't be his, tried to hide the fact that he was in love with Ray the best he could.
Ray, a perfect stranger to the mess going on in his best friend's head, immune to Kai's intense, hurt eyes and trembling smiles, pursued Mariah.
Mariah, for some unknown reason, kept on rejecting Ray while still making sure to be nice while also being firm. It was always fun watching the two.
… and Tala stuck around to comfort Kai whenever he needed, then receded back into the shadows when the Russian felt he was ready to be hurt again.
...
Frustrated, Tala yanked his hair out of the ponytail again. It just wasn't working! He was having the mother of all bad hair days. So when he recognized Ray's hurried and light footsteps outside his door, he almost cried for joy.
Till the door to the bathroom opened, and a stark naked Ray rushed in, shutting in in the face of Kai who was similarly bare and in hot pursuit.
A startled Tala didn't know where to look, or precisely, how not to look at Ray's lean devil of a body, all of which was bare for him to see. The Chinese teen smirked upon noticing his wandering gaze and stepped close to Tala, close enough for his cock to be brushing against Tala's pants.
"You seem to be having trouble with that." Ray drawled as he ran his fingertips down Tala's arms, making him aware of the fact that he himself was topless. Tangling their fingers together, he slipped the hair tie from Tala's hands. Getting on his tiptoes, he reached behind his head and gathered his hair in a bunch. With his lips next to the redhead's ear, he whispered, "I can fix you."
Tala didn't remember putting his hands on Ray's ass but they didn't wanna move, despite his mind reeling at Kai's impatient banging on the door.
Ray tied his hair away from his face and then leaned back and Tala was once again struck by how utterly gorgeous this boy was. His grip tightened.
"You know, Kai and I, we have talked about asking you to join us but somehow never got the guts to do it. You always seemed so uncomfortable with the idea of us together." Ray's thigh was lifted to brush against his crotch. "But this tells me you might be willing to negotiate."
Ray began kissing the base of his throat and Tala closed his eyes, emotions clashing and warring inside him with a bloody ferocity. When he opened his eyes and took sight of Ray again, the long black hair was down and he was fisting his cock. Throwing caution to the wind, Tala grabbed the teen's cheeks and pulled him into the most fierce kiss he had ever bothered to give anyone, trying to tell Ray how much he loved him and was thankful for his company, and also how much he absolutely loathed him, how much he wanted him just then, and how much more he wanted his best friend.
Ray was skilled with his tongue and Tala took it as a challenge, seeking to out-kiss him. The two lost themselves into each other to such an extent that they jolted apart with racing hearts when the door hit the wall behind it and Kai stormed inside, grabbing Ray by the shoulders and beginning to kiss him as he pushed him into the shower.
The sight of his crush naked sent Tala reeling, and he almost took two steps to join them, before changing his mind and turning right around, satisfying himself with a hurried wank, picturing the two, with himself sandwiched in between them.
...
In the morning, he felt pathetic and ashamed but none of the three said a word to Bryan and Tala regretfully settled back into his routine of building Kai up when Ray inevitably broke him and then waiting for when he did it again, selfishly wanting Kai to hurt more and longer, all so he could get to comfort him over cigarettes and the ten inches of what seemed to be an insurmountable space between their shoulders.
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