About the second last installment in this one. I hate what I am doing to poor Tala but oh well. Writer's code and all that.

Mariah wasn't speaking to him. Mariah wasn't so much as looking at him.

He guessed that was to be expected. They had fallen asleep in each other's arms last night because they were shaken and didn't quite know what to do with themselves. That didn't necessarily mean she had forgiven him.

He had woken up in her bed only to be ordered out of her room and her life. He had tried to apologize and in response, she tore the picture of them he had seen the night before, shredded it to pieces and threw them in his face before threatening him with violent manslaughter if he didn't get his ass moving.

Now she sat at the breakfast table, a few seats down across from him and not once meeting his eyes. She wasn't even pretending to be okay. It was clear on her face how much he must have hurt her.

He wasn't the only one staring at her though. Ray, who was sitting to his left had his eyes focussed on her too, except the dorky smile he usually wore around her had been replaced by a sad, pensive frown. Tala figured that despite the forced smiles he had been receiving all morning, Ray wasn't going to forgive him for a long while either.

Kai was nowhere to be seen and Bryan was the only one trying his best to keep the conversation flowing. The three of them religiously avoided talking about what Kai had done and Tala knew that was the best he could get.

When Kai showed up five minutes before the end of breakfast hour, both Ray and Bryan stiffened in their seats. Tala simply smiled and wished the asshole a good morning which was something he had never done before. He was hoping to make it clear just how much had changed between the two.

Kai narrowed his eyes at the greeting, took a deep breath and said, "Let's go smoke."

Tala saw Bryan gawp in disbelief and Ray narrow his eyes, preparing to launch a rant. Before he could, Tala said, "Sure. I was done here anyway."

He told himself he didn't want to create more of a scene after yesterday, but he knew that the way his eyes despite his wishes, registered Kai's dark circles and ashen appearance had more to do with his agreement.

Smiling at his friends and giving a last glance in Mariah's direction, he stood up to follow Kai out of the dining hall and to their little hideout but to his surprise, found himself being led in the direction of their old music classroom, the one nobody visited anymore. He didn't say a word and silently followed the slate-haired teen in front of him. Truth be told, he didn't really know what to say. He was mad at Kai even as everything inside him writhed to forgive him. It wasn't simple, being in love with the God of everything hateful and disloyal.

As Kai locked the door shut behind them, Tala took and placed himself against the wall next to it. Soon enough Kai was in front of him, appearing calm and unruffled to any casual observer but Tala could see the apprehension and guilt that weighed him down clear as day in his ruby eyes and felt no pity whatsoever. When Kai gave him a cigarette and stuck his hand out for the matchbox Tala simply remarked, "I didn't bring any today."

Kai's hand fell limply to his side and he did not look up.

One second, he was staring at a positively forlorn Kai looking unable to comprehend anything. The next he was being pinned to the wall with a pair of furious lips against his.

Tala felt dizzy and clutched on to his partner's strong arms for support.

He could do nothing but stand there and take it as Kai pressed their bodies closer together. What jerked him out of his trance was when he felt a tongue caress his lower lip. With slight effort, he pried Kai off himself and pushed him away so the Russian lost his balance and stumbled back.

"What the fuck, Kai?!"

He was panting and his red eyes were darker than Tala had ever seen them be but what truly blew his mind was how confused he had the nerve to look.

"You are gay."

"I am gay." Tala parroted.

Kai straightened himself and regulated his expression and Tala was glad for the sense of normalcy that reestablished, even if it was to a very small degree. Running a hand through his locks he started mumbling some more vague nonsense which Tala filtered through to get to the point. Which he still couldn't see.

"Why did you kiss me, Kai?"

He just stepped closer to Tala and put his arms back around him. The redhead squirmed in his grasp and pushed his face as far away from Kai's nearing one as it could go.

"I don't know what to do. Just let me give this to you…"

More mumbling that was lost on Tala because Kai's mouth had attached itself to his jawbone. The redhead tried his best to keep his eyes from shutting on themselves as the Russian took a hold of the side of his face with a gentle possessiveness which made it seem like Kai was holding back now. It was strangely sweet and very considerate.

Feeling his body starting to respond, he pushed Kai away again. "I can't… are you… are you really trying to pimp yourself out to me as some sort of apology?"

Crimson eyes remained trailed on to Tala's boots. Kai was panting but they hadn't been kissing for all that long. He didn't understand, he didn't understand anything anymore.

"Kai! What in hell made you think this was a good idea?!"

"I didn't know what else to do. I thought if I could give you this at least…", he trailed off, unsure. Kai Hiwatari had never looked that helpless before. It made Tala feel a bit better about himself.

He sighed and rested his head against the wall, feeling his limbs slowly turning to lead. He suppressed a shudder. "Don't ever do that again, Kai." Belatedly, he realized that was the first and probably last time he would kiss Kai and almost teared up at the fact that he couldn't remember anything about it except for the acid that seemed to pool in his stomach when he felt the Russian against him.

Said Russian nodded and dared to look up at the redhead. "Forgive me, Tala. For real. Don't try to trick me I can't take it."

Despite the guilty expression, Kai's aristocratic features held a power no-one else's did. Tala wondered if he had just become used to giving in to him overtime.

...

It took the better part of the year but overtime things went back to normal. Tala tried his best to not act differently around any of them, and he was rather successful. A brief lunch-time brawl with a few idiotic juniors sent a clear message that any name-calling aimed at Tala would not be tolerated by them and over the weeks, the rumors disappeared as well when people noticed the redhead had always been in the prime of health. As the school body went looking for more fresh, juicy gossip the icy walls that had come up between Ray, Bryan and Kai started thawing themselves.

The first one month or so, Kai won't even sleep in their dorm room. He only showed up to change and so when the rest of them were not present. It was clear that he was genuinely very sorry about what he had done and that was what motivated Tala to find him and tell him he could come back.

In the next week or so, Bryan and Kai sorted out their differences too. Tala suspected some punches had been thrown around but he didn't ask.

Ray took longer to forgive Kai.

For a while, they weren't even on speaking terms. Ray always had that degenerating disappointed look in his eyes whenever Kai was present and if it made Tala and Bryan nervous, they couldn't even bear to think about how it must affect the guilty party. Kai completely stopped trash-talking Mariah or touching Ray and for a while, Tala derived sick pleasure out of thinking that this might be the end of their sordid little affair.

Till the tension became too intense to handle and they locked the two together in the dorm room for a whole evening. When Tala and Bryan returned late that night, they were tangled up in the sheets together on Ray's bed. They hadn't even removed their shoes so it was clear they hadn't had sex but the casual intimacy in itself tore Tala even more than all the times he caught them in compromising positions did.

That left the issue of Mariah. Tala apologized to her about a million times and after two months of sulking, Mariah eventually forgave him too. Or at least she said she did.

It was early October when Tala could find it in himself to safely say his life had returned to normal again. Kai and Ray were fucking when Ray wasn't trying his level best to work his way into Mariah's good books. Bryan was his usual detached self and Tala was left to feel like the outsider again. Sometimes he caught himself thinking he won't mind suffering through something like that again if it meant they could all go back to looking at him and actually seeing him some times.

…

"What is your problem? Really?" He couldn't help himself that afternoon in the libraries, as Mariah sat next to him, a book on biology open in front of her and eyes straying far ahead, across their table and out of the window, where one could easily see Ray and Bryan roughhousing in the sun, as Kai watched the two from under the tree he was leaning against.

Without taking her eyes off her stalker for a second, she responded, "What is my problem with what?"

"Ray, and don't even try to tell me you don't like him because it'd be clear as day to someone blind as a bat that's a lie."

She sighed and hesitantly turned to look at Tala. Gazing deep into his eyes, probably ensuring her secret was safe with him, she closed her own before starting to speak in a pained whisper.

"I like him, of course, I do. Who doesn't? He is kind and funny and more than easy on the eyes. He is loyal and protective, and I see how he dotes on you." A faint smile made it to her face, and her pretty yellow eyes danced with a spark Tala now recognized as one she often sported when Ray was out making a fool of himself in front of her. "I mean, I am no weakling Tal and you know it, but with him, even when I am so much as in the same room as him, I feel so protected, so safe somehow, because everybody knows if he bothers calling them his friends, he would unthinkingly die to protect them from anything. Do you get me?"

Tala nodded. He knew exactly what she was talking about because he had felt the same way the day Ray had first approached him and still did to this one.

A wistful look came across her features as she turned back to gaze at the boys, except Bryan was nowhere to be seen and Kai and Ray were sitting too close for comfort. Tala tore his eyes away when he felt his chest constrict at that.

"Then where is the problem?", he prodded her again. "Mariah you have turned him down every single time he has tried to…"

"Because he doesn't love me, Tala!", she snapped, effectively silencing him for a good five seconds before he gained his bearings and gave her a baffled look.

"Are you for real? The guy is crazy behind you, has been so for a good two years now!"

"I know that but it's not… you won't understand. Let it be."

He put a hand on top of hers, trying to reassure his visibly upset friend, best friend if he was being honest with himself. A part of him wondered if this new-found hesitation, this need to lie, rose from what he had done to her. She was always a little detached these days. "Try me."

A contemplative look seized her features and she turned away to gaze at the ceiling, seeming lost to all the world, but her tense shoulders made it clear that she was alert and cautious. This in-turn made Tala want to reach out and hug her for he knew exactly what it was like, being on guard all the time, insecure about all your emotions to the point that you're almost scared of them. After all, it was why he kept trying and failing to distance himself from Kai.

"Ray… he is a collector, Tala. He collects pretty things, pretty people. I don't know if he even realizes he's doing it… if he even means to… but I can't. I can't just be a pretty face to someone who means the world to me." She looked into his eyes, then and smiled. It was sad and broke his heart, and not for the first time in his life, Tala wanted to beat the shit out of Ray. "You understand, I know. You can't just rest with being an attractive conquest to Kai either, can you?"

He didn't really know how to respond to that so he didn't, only squeezed her hand, which she withdrew after a second, almost as if remembering he was not somebody she should be opening herself to.

...

Between the great fuckening of June as they liked to call 'the incident', to the ending of November, aforementioned was the only real conversation Tala and Mariah had shared. It made him sick to think he had lost her.

So he did the one thing he could. Set out to prove to her that Ray didn't actually view her as a possession. That if she so wanted, she could bring him to his knees with one snap of her fingers.

In order to bring said plan to fruition, he and Kai were currently trying to climb into the girls' dormitories through the back window of their first-story corridor. It was class time so he doubted anybody who could be expected to rat would be in there. So that was one relief, which was presently being negated by their rickety ladder and Kai's complete unwillingness to actually help him steady it. The Russian's logic was that Tala won't be down here to steady it for him when he had to climb up so he wasn't going to hold it still for Tala either.

He should've brought Bryan along instead.

He had told Kai they were going to play a prank on Mariah and he had actually jumped in excitement. Poor guy had no idea that if this prank was successful he might actually lose his lover to her but Tala figured in the long run, it would only be better for Kai to get over Ray as soon as possible. If Mariah didn't get him, some other girl would and that was that. He was doing Kai a favor really... if only he could convince himself to believe that.

With difficulty, Tala slid the window open while still remaining upright on the ladder. Looking down and catching sight of Kai's smirk, he rolled his eyes before performing what was essentially a slither and somehow managing to enter the building. Just to fuck with his non-cooperative partner in crime, he tipped the end of the ladder away from the sill and watched it land with a dull, earthen thud against the grassy ground. Kai gave the fallen ladder a look, then flipped him off.

Grinning, he marched off to Mariah's room. By the time, he had picked the lock on her dresser drawer and obtained her face cream out of it Kai was behind him and frowning.

Registering the sudden ball of unwillingness floating in the atmosphere behind him, Tala frowned. "What is it?" He asked without turning to Kai.

"… sounded a little extreme."

Amusement tugged his brows upward and he glanced at Kai out of the corner of his eye. The red-eyed devil seemed just as surprised by his own words as Tala was.

Well, he had always known that despite the mind-numbing jealousy Kai didn't actually hate Mariah. He felt rather sorry for what had happened to her, truth be told.

Smirking, Tala twisted around and stepped closer to Kai. It was the closest they had stood in all these months. "Going soft there, Hiwatari."

Kai scoffed and looked away as if to signify he couldn't care less. "Like hell I am.", he muttered sullenly when he found he couldn't really think of an appropriately snarky come-back. Tala bit back a chuckle and got to work.

A minute later, Kai was watching over his shoulder again. "Are you sure about this, Tal?"

"As sure as I am that you're straight.", he lied.

"Not at all, then." Kai replied, a little amused, a lot apprehensive. This was fun.

"Don't you worry. I have the meds."

…

It took three weeks of regular application of the cream for the spots to rise and become visible. They dotted all of the skin of her face that morning, angry greenish-red and everybody seemed to be minding them a little too much.

Any other person might have cried but not Mariah, she didn't give a shit about what anyone thought of her and yet it was blatantly obvious that she was concerned and a little put off by the snickering and commenting going around her. He knew that a part of her was used to being gorgeous and she couldn't quite deal with these new marks that covered all of her with a desperate vengeance. Loosely, you could even say she was pouting at breakfast that morning.

Kai wasn't all too pleased either. He had tolerated the presence of those marks for a whole half hour before he demanded Tala hand her the medicine that would cure the little buggers. It amused the redhead to no end, seeing how protective he had become of his pink-haired nemesis.

And no, it wasn't to mean he liked Mariah, probably still hated her guts but the fuckening had slotted the girl as someone Kai now considered to be a part of his life, someone he wouldn't especially mind looking out for. If he had to, you know.

Kai was so uncomfortable with the better parts of himself that it regularly sent Tala into demented fits of laughter. He had told Kai he would hand it to her at the end of the day and waited for the sleeping beauty of their dorm room to make his appearance.

They had to wait a total of four minutes before a visibly panicked Ray bustled into the room. Immediately, Mariah ducked her head down and Hilary, her roommate and best friend gave her a sympathetic glance before shifting slightly to hide her from him.

Per habit, Ray's eyes searched her out and like every other day he walked over to where she sat before tapping on her shoulder.

She raised her face to him, eyes nervous and raised brows defiant at the same time. Tala felt a surge of pride when Ray took in the spots and didn't even flinch before smiling brightly at her and wishing her a good morning as per his daily routine.

She returned his greeting in a surprised stupor, something she didn't really do. He walked up to where his roommates were and collapsed on his ass with a giddy grin on his face.

The only thing he had to say about the spots was, "Probably an allergic reaction." when Bryan did bring them up later.

…

That night when he handed her the tube that would help clear away the spots that had been caused by the reaction of the serum he had mixed in with her face cream earlier, she punched his shoulder but laughed while doing so. She had been laughing the entire day, he had noticed.

As she made to move away, he called out to her. "Still think you are only a pretty possession to him?"

Without stopping, she answered. "Might have misjudged after all."

…

Tala never even realized what a storm he had opened their gates to with that little stunt.

Mariah was giving Ray the time of the day now, which meant Ray was less and less inclined to sleep with Kai.

Which in turn meant, their personal hellspawn was furious.

Furious would be the wrong word though, he was just surly and irritable. While he wasn't the most pleasant of companions on his usual days, in the fifteen days that he hadn't gotten a chance to sink it in Ray, he was downright intolerable. All their classmates knew better than to try to cross his path when that black cloud of doom hung over his head. If somebody dared to speak louder than the volume he deemed acceptable (which was barely above a whisper), he would pin them with a glare so ferocious they often looked ready to pee their pants. His only respite from the constant anxiousness and rage he felt seemed to be his smoke breaks with Tala.

Tala could understand how Kai was feeling for he himself had been struggling with the bitter taste of rejection for a little too long. Often, he found himself tempted to just blurt it out in front of him that there was somebody out there who loved him way more than Ray ever could.

These days, every time he looked at Ray, his mood only seemed to get worse and Tala was left to bear the full brunt of that because the other two were rarely ever around and yet every night when Kai returned, drunk more nights than not, it was Ray's bed he crawled into. They didn't have sex and they had never blatantly slept together all for the sake of each other's presence before but it was a thing now, apparently.

…

The sounds of the tattoo gun drilling introduced a dull throbbing in Tala's head and he looked with distaste at the tool.

"Why can't this be fixed with a silencer?"

The blonde tattoo artist and Kai shared a smirk and Tala felt his face itch in annoyance.

"You will never understand the love of this sound." The blondie scoffed and Tala (subconsciously pouting) turned to Kai in silent demand to stop laughing and jump in his defense.

With another muffled chuckle, Kai propped his head on his palm. "Well it is a little annoying and honestly, the actual process doesn't hurt half as much as this sound must scare people away."

Which was a lie because no matter how hard he tried not to show it, it was obvious Kai was in a lot of pain. They were currently in a dingy little tattoo shop in an equally shady locality where Kai was getting a huge phoenix tattooed along his side ribs in lovely shades of red and black. This was their third trip to the shop and the man was hoping to finish it off in this one even after Kai continually insisting he took all the time he needed and not rush it at all. Tala was especially nervous because for one, he wasn't hare-brained like the rest of his friends so he naturally wasn't gifted with their hot-headed and mindless daredevilry, and two, they had snuck out of school and were both under age so they had had to resort to this questionable tattoo artist which was really not helping the situation at all. Kai hadn't even waited for the appropriate time between sittings. He just had them on alternate days!

He would rather Kai had waited for seven more months and gotten it over the summer breaks from a reputed tattoo parlor but no Ray meant heartbreak which usually resulted in an innate urge amongst teenagers which lead them to strangely, well… want to modify their bodies.

Over the course of the past three trips here, Tala had found needlessly elongating the sentences of his internal monologue and throwing in words really helped in distracting himself from all of Kai's naked skin.

The Russian was currently laying on his stomach, his left arm propped up on the headrest to accommodate the blondie, with this well-proportioned back, taut with rippling muscles on display for Tala (not specifically, but he could imagine…) It was one of the hottest images Tala had seen in his life, right up on the list with when he saw him and Ray naked and kissing furiously in the shower that day. At one point, Tala had curled his nose at how painful it all seemed to be, and Kai had tilted his head back and winked at him. Truth be told, the redhead was risking a lot of his dignity simply sitting here next to his half-naked crush.

When they were finally done, the tattoo had been completed after-all, Kai thumbed through his bills while Tala listened attentively to the after-care instructions in his stead. He threw Kai dirty glances too, but ever since the dawn of the internet century, first-hand information had become cheap.

Rolling his eyes at Kai's obvious effort to not appear obvious in keeping his arm away from his side, Tala held the door open for him.

The walk back home was in peaceful silence. They snuck back in with no difficulties, thanks to the steady bribery arrangement they had going with the guard. It was only when they were right about to enter their dormitory when the vision from hell presented itself.

In the distance, under a tree in one of the many lavish grounds of their posh alma mater, Ray and Mariah were currently trying to drown their tongues in each other's throats.

With a choked noise, Kai drew a halt beside Tala. Tala felt his eyes widen and by the time he turned to his companion, he was doubling back towards the gates.

"Kai!", he called out. "What…-"

Kai whipped around and Tala was thankful for that because he was about to follow that 'what' with 'is wrong' and frankly, that was the stupidest question he could ask.

A weird smile curled Kai's lips. It made his own chest constrict in pain. "You and I both know the answer to that." That would be the one and only time in life that Kai, in all his senses, would stand to acknowledge that he was getting hurt by Ray's indifference towards him.

The Russian kicked up a sprint and Tala knew better than to follow.

…

That night, Tala was rudely awakened by something shuffling into the covers next to him. Before he could collect his bearings, a pair of pale arms tightened around his waist and warmth pulled flush against his back. His senses encountered foul-smelling alcohol breath as Kai panted behind him.

He opened his mouth to say something but Kai beat him to it. "I don't love him.", he slurred, languidly.

"Okay?" Tala offered cautiously.

"I… I really don't. He doesn't and I don't." Tala tried to turn around to face him but he only tightened his hold.

"Kai…" It wasn't new these days, for him to have nothing to say to the Russian.

"It's alright. I just don't like Mariah's hair!" A groan followed that and despite himself, Tala chuckled. "Or her nails. What if she scratches his balls?"

The redhead's shoulders shook and Kai decided that was offensive.

"Why are you laughing? Am I joking?" The questions sounded so damn genuine that Tala just couldn't help himself.

"Yes, you are."

He felt Kai nod against his back. "Okay." He drawled.

This time he let Tala turn around to face him. Kai was beyond wasted, eyes almost closing on themselves and mouth open, drooling. It was obscenely adorable.

"How are you feeling, Kai?" He dared to lift his fingers and rest them against his temple. Delicately, he stroked the smooth skin on the side of his face.

"Not very nice… nicely?" His brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to figure out the correct word form. "I am worried about his balls. They are hot."

For a few seconds Tala toyed with the idea of videoing drunken Kai but quickly decided against it. Kai would have his balls if he found out, and unlike Ray's, his weren't very dear to him.

"She won't hurt him. She loves him Kai and he loves her too. Does that hurt you?"

Red eyes gazed right into his and Tala found himself wanting to kiss him once. Kai probably won't remember in the morning.

"A little. I love him too so why doesn't he love me?" Kai huffed out in a pout and if Tala were a good friend, he would be trying his level best to reassure him right about now instead of leaning into him.

"Can I kiss you?" The words left his mouth by their own accord and Kai bit his lip before, and this was not a trait Tala ever thought he would relate with Kai, shyly nodding his head.

Really, what else was he expecting? The teen was wasted.

Around them, their roommates snored, unaware of the rising heat around the two. Kai was staring at Tala's lips and subtly cocking his head up almost as if trying to signal he wanted this just as much as Tala did. Wasting no time, the redhead draped himself over Kai's body and touched their lips together.

Kai had kissed him before, but this felt more like a first time than that ever did.

Plaint lips parted under Tala's with no resistance. Hands snaked into his hair and carefully undid his ponytail. Tala could feel his head spinning. Just to find his axis again, he pulled away from Kai and sat up against the headboard.

Red eyes blinked up at him in confusion before Kai propped himself up on his elbows. "So you don't want me either?"

Tala didn't even stop to think about what he was feeling when Kai straightened and placed himself on top of his thighs looming over the redhead. His face was carefully blank again and in the back of his mind, Tala questioned if he wasn't as out of it as it seemed.

Kai's hand snaked on top of his, tugging on it and placing it against his clothed chest. Tala found his heart was racing just like his own. "Please, Tal."

Once again their lips met. The redhead had always assumed when they would kiss it would be wild and frenzied and he was pleasantly surprised to see how sweetly Kai was kissing him, carefully applying gentle pressure against him, taking a hold of his lower lip and tugging on it so softly it made something implode inside his chest. He gripped Kai's hips and tugged him closer so that they met flush at their groins and up their chests. The Russian put his fingers in Tala's locks again and when he entered his mouth, both of them let out groans that would have definitely woken the dead, much less Bryan or Ray.

If they did wake up, they didn't interrupt the two as they continued kissing, lovingly. It was almost as if Kai needed it as much as he did.

Breaking apart, Kai trailed kisses down his chin and Tala craned his neck back, craving those soft lips against his sweet spots but Kai just grabbed on to his jaw and touched their kips together again.

They remained wrapped up in each other for a long while, and it had become clear to Tala that Kai did not wish to go any further so when they both grew exhausted and their more carnal of urges were momentarily sated, he let the Russian sit on top of him, even though he was wider, taller and heavier. Sometime during the night, Kai fell asleep with his head on Tala's shoulder and the redhead decided to revel in the knowledge, that Kai Hiwatari wanted him.

…

Tala woke up to throbbing neck spasms, backache and the dead weight of Kai leaning against him, still. Also, two pairs of bright blue and golden eyes were staring at him in curiosity from the foot of his bed.

His instinct was to jerk up, which he promptly followed, resulting in something pulling across his shoulders. He hissed in pain and Bryan walked around the bed to help pull Kai off of him, who was still out like a light probably because of the hangover.

Tala massaged his shoulders as well as he could as his roommates continued to stare at him. He rolled his eyes. "You guys are so creepy. I am entitled to a little privacy I should think."

Ray snorted at that. "Bullshit. What is that word? We've never heard of it." His eyes remained blank, though. Tala wondered if he was pissed about all this which he had no right to be, obviously.

'All this' though, he was painfully reminded, was essentially nothing. Kai might not even remember kissing him at all.

"Well?" Bryan prompted.

"Nothing. He just stumbled in drunk and couldn't go to sleep so…"

"So he clambered on top of you, you buried your head in his neck and then?"

Tala felt his whole face light up a shade darker than his hair. "That's not what happened!" He mentally cringed at how lame that sounded.

Twin shark-like smirks unfurled on Bryan's and Ray's faces as their eyes focussed on Kai. Like an idiot in panic, for a second Tala was wondering if he had left hickeys on Kai's lips. When he turned to look at Kai, he registered something even more frightening, though. Eyes, very red, very open eyes staring straight up at him without a hint of any emotion whatsoever.

"He's right. That's not all that happened." Kai muttered and sat up. "We made out too."

…

To say Tala was disappointed was a huge understatement because absolutely nothing had changed in his relationship with Kai. He hadn't tried to hide the fact that they had been making out, but he had nothing more to say about it either and life just went on.

Well, Ray and Mariah were now official. So, at least two of them were happy.

One change that brought about was that Tala and Kai were now alone together a lot of the time. Hours that were previously spent with Mariah every day were now devoted to Kai, who seemed to have nothing of importance to do with his time now that he wasn't getting any.

The smoke breaks that used to be the only thing they shared together before, weren't unique in their singularity anymore. Now they did almost everything together with each other and Bryan when he was there. Tala was taken to all the good coffee shops around the city, something that was a Kai-Ray thing before because the Russian was a huge fan of them. The redhead could now recite his order in his sleep.

Kai showed him all the other tattoos he was planning on getting and Tala told him about all the universities he had already applied to. He was hoping to get into teaching himself and the older teen told him he felt the profession was perfect for him. Small things grew into bigger ones and it was only when Ray started giving him a certain, significant look and Bryan always seemed to be smiling proudly at him, that Tala realized how close they had both become.

Sometimes their relationship felt softer than any of the friendships he had experienced before. Something about the meaningless smiles they gave each other made Tala blush and squirm when he was alone in bed at night.

"Do you ever think I might fuck this up again?", Kai asked him one day.

Tala sighed. "If I am being real, I am absolutely certain you will because you are morally inferior to everyone else here but honestly, that's just part of your charm."

A helpless smirk from Kai ended that conversation, setting the theme for the fucking up he was about to do again.

…

It was Valentine's Day.

Ray and Mariah were throwing a little get-together by the lake that night for the closest of their friends, something very different from any other parties Ray had previously thrown which were basically open-house. Everybody was happy about it, except Kai, because they had insider information that Ray and Mariah had entered the day of love going at it like bunnies. Add that to the fact that his family had been downright horrible to him over Christmas break, so much so that he had packed his bags after three days and gone over to Bryan's to spend the rest of the break there. So he had come back in mid-Jan with the temperament of a raging demon from hell and as always Tala had dealt with the brunt of it.

Neither Tala nor Bryan had tried to coerce Kai into coming when he gave a straight no. They had avoided telling Ray about it too because they didn't need either of them blowing up.

So Tala sat with Bryan and Hilary (both of whom were recently single and had been smiling at each other quite a lot), close to the bank of the river right next to where the rest of party-goers had bonfires and music going. In the middle of a huge group were Mariah and Ray, regaling the crowd with tales of all the weird-ass things Ray had previously tried, to woo Mariah. Tala was convinced that though they were pretending they had all snuck out and trying to make it seem all adventurous, the authorities knew and had let it slide because Ray was their star track runner, Mariah was a bomb debater, he himself was fucking good at basketball and Bryan had better grades than all of them put together. Most other people they dealt with were similarly excellent students.

It made Tala recall the time Mariah said Ray liked collecting pretty people. Maybe that was true, except it wasn't just aesthetically pleasing individuals Ray gravitated towards. He only sat with the creme of the student body, the best in academics, sports and any other field you could name. It seemed he had inherited his parents' expensive tastes and extravagant habits in more ways than one, something reflected in every mannerism of his. Tala only hoped it won't grow into a cause for concern in later years.

Anyways, it was surprising what all the authority would be willing to forgive you if you sat with a certain group. Include the fact that this was their last year, the seniors were allowed a few shenanigans others won't manage to escape with. In short, it was a merry night.

Sometime in the middle of their celebrations, the juices had ended up being spiked and as the night wore on without any official interruptions that ruse had been given up as a whole. Everybody around them seemed to be nursing beers and spotting rosy cheeks, against the orange of their skins due to the glow of the firelight. Somebody had broken out a stick and poke tattoo kit which reminded Tala of Kai and brought forth a smile.

To add to that, Mariah had casually mentioned she loved piercings on guys, and Ray being the whipped idiot he was, immediately swore to get one. Turned out the stick and poke guy had the required instruments and immediately offered his services. Tala would have put a stop to it, but he was drunk enough to think that was a good idea.

With a lapful of giggling Mariah, Ray was currently trying not to scream while getting his cartilage stabbed. Bryan was by his side, squinting and Hilary was hanging over his shoulder. They made an odd picture all-in-all, Tala thought from where he sat bare-chested, waiting in line to get his nipples pierced.

In the back of his mind, Tala knew that was a little stupid but Kai with his tattoo was now about two hundred percent more attractive. He had to match that somehow.

Ray got up with a grin and flashed his golden earring at Tala once. "How does it look?"

With what he could feel was a goofy smile, Tala launched into a long monologue about how good golden looked against Ray's tan skin. Only the Chinese seemed to be taking him seriously though. The rest were laughing for some reason he couldn't understand.

He remembered Bryan having to force him and hold him down as the boy with the needle put his hands on his chest. He remembered something about 'Kai's territory' slipping out and Bryan promptly covering his mouth. He remembered the stinging pain he felt and he remembered the blood flowing down in a merry crimson rivulet down his promptly paling chest.

Lastly, he remembered muttering an impassioned 'oh fuck' before the world went black.

...