The next morning when Kai woke up, he had a dull headache and no desire to move. He did, however, after six minutes of lying in his too-small bed, and trudged to the bathroom. After relieving himself, he turned on the faucet, undressed, and stepped into the shower. The cold water cascaded down his shoulders and back and into the drain. He closed his eyes and wet his hair under the stream of now warmer water. He opened them abruptly when someone started banging on the locked door. Could he just have five minutes of peace?

"Are you done in there?" Tala.

"Give me a hot minute!" he called over the sound of water splashing on the bathtub floor. The banging started again, louder. "WHAT?" he shouted.

"I gotta piss!"

"Go piss your pants then, I'm in the shower!" He rubbed the shampoo into his hair furiously.

"I have needs!"

"WELL I'M IN THE GODDAMN SHOWER SO SUCK IT UP OR GO SOMEPLACE ELSE!"

"FINE!"

He didn't hear anything else, so he tried to make himself relax and rinse the soap out of his hair. Tala was such a prick, he would never let Kai have his privacy or the freedom to just do whatever he wanted, it had always been like this, ever since they were both children at the Abbey -

Kai stopped his train of thought and turned off the water. With a pang, he remembered that Tala had always been the only one consistently on his side growing up, and the only one to never tell him such reproaches he wasn't good enough. Or whatever. Kai wasn't a child anymore, it didn't matter what people said to him. And anyway, Tala was an ass.

After towel-drying his hair as best he could and running a safety razor across his face, he exited the bathroom with a towel drawn around his waist. The sun had already come up and was at just the right angle to be blinding through the windows, so Kai shut his eyes against the oncoming flicker vertigo. He walked sideways into the wall, being unable to find his balance after a few seconds. He gripped the towel more tightly with his free hand. He felt as though he had stood up too fast after lying down for a while, the way the blood started rushing in his head and how his vision spotted. But after half a minute, the fit passed, and he continued to his room to change. On his way, he passed one of the bladers he'd only met recently when she moved into the house. She was a bit queer, in multiple meanings of the word, but she didn't much bother him. And she was one of the only girls he knew who wasn't constantly coming onto him. Even so, it was slightly embarrassing to pass by in such a naked manner, and Kai felt the blood rush to his cheeks. His body wasn't perfect, especially when he didn't have the benefit of fabric to cover his blemishes. But the girl only met his eyes indifferently and continued to the stairs. He hurried into his room to avoid any more awkward encounters (well, what would be awkward to him anyway) and glanced around. Damn. He hadn't really bothered to clean up last night, and all of his contraband was laid out in the open, for anyone to see or smell. In Russia, it wouldn't be as big of a deal - he was old enough to drink and possession wasn't a huge offense anyway - but in Japan, he could be arrested. And he didn't really trust anyone he knew not to blow the whole idea of this type of "recreational activity" out of proportion. He stuffed anything incriminating into the bottom of a box full of extra sheets and shoved it under his bed. And not a moment too soon.

"Do you have any tissues?" A boy who seemed about Max or Tyson's age walked into Kai's room without knocking, pinching a bloodied and dripping nose with his left hand, and trying to catch the drops with his right. Didn't I lock the door? Kai remembered seeing him the previous night watching the movie, but couldn't really recognize him beyond that.

"Who are you?" he asked, trying to keep the bite out of his words. He was still half-naked, after all. The boy opened his eyes widely at him.

"Jonah Roy," he said with embarrassment, taking in Kai's exposed figure, "I, uh, didn't realize you were, uh, in," he lied. Kai stopped himself rolling his eyes.

"Well, knocking is usually advised," he said dryly. Jonah looked down at his feet, inadvertently dripping blood onto the fraying rug. "There's toilet paper in the bathroom."

Jonah barely looked before striding from the room. Kai made sure to lock the door when he got up to close it. Jonah Roy. He still didn't really recognize the kid, but he was sure he'd heard that name somewhere before. Maybe a small-time tournament in one of the fringe towns they'd visited on the homecoming tour. Maybe he was the son of a billionaire. Kai found that he didn't much care one way or another. He slid into a pair of gray cargo pants and pulled on a slim long-sleeved shirt he'd gotten from a leg of one of the bigger competitions in America. It was one of his cooler shirts, having a rugged American flag design behind, the name of the competition (American Series All-Star Championships), and the names of all the participants on the back, arranged by state or country. It was much cooler than his Euro one or even any of his World ones. And that competition, he recalled, he won.

Kai grabbed his cell phone from the stand where it was charging (it was a brand-new black Motorola RAZR from Mr. Dickinson that came with the stipulation that he kept it on him at all times) and moved downstairs toward the kitchen. Today was errand day and he had to see what they needed to buy. Unfortunately, the kitchen was packed by the time he got down there. Hardly anyone acknowledged his presence though, with the glaring exception of Ray and Tala.

"'Sup, asshole," Tala greeted him with a snicker. He must have thought he was immensely clever.

"Don't be obnoxious," Ray reprimanded. Kai knew he wasn't the biggest fan of any member, former or otherwise, of the Demolition Boys, excluding Kai himself.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry. Being obnoxious is Kai's domain," Tala replied. Now, Kai gave himself permission to roll his eyes.

"Wise guy," he snapped back. He noticed that some of the conversation from others in the kitchen was starting to die down as more people started listening to their exchange. "I wasn't the one offending everyone in therapy yesterday," he said quietly, so only he and Tala could hear.

"Yeah, you just didn't say anything the whole time! And when we were supposed to share, you got up and went to the bathroom for the rest of the session! You left me out to dry!" Kai frowned. He remembered that. He had started feeling kind of sick with anticipation and deserted. He assumed Tala would get a kick out of sharing for the both of them without Kai interrupting, anyway. Oops.

"Well, like you said, you're never going back, so," he heaved a sigh, "what does it matter?"

At this point, Ray decided to pipe up, "Wait - you're not going back?" He looked slightly affronted that his grand idea was just shot down after one session. Kai sighed again.

"He-"

"It was awful," Tala finished his thought with his own.

"I thought you'd at least give it a try-"

"We did. It just… wasn't for us," Kai cut in, not wanting to cause more trouble. Already, theirs seemed to be the only source of conversation in the room, and he wasn't really keen on everybody else hearing this discussion. Ray seemed to sense his thoughts.

"Well, alright then. I guess we can talk about it another time," seeing Tala's face, he added, "or not."

There was an awkward lull in the conversation, in which everyone who had been intently listening turned away and pretended to engage back into their own dialogues, painfully aware of the sudden lack of noise in the room. Kai himself felt strange, like his limbs were suddenly detached from his body and his torso was bent like it usually wasn't. A sheen of sweat developed on his brow and he wiped it off with his detached hand. Suddenly, Ray was by his side. "Do you need help with the shopping?" He held up a list. "I already wrote down what we need to get. If we leave now, we can be back before lunch." Kai knew what that meant. If you want to leave, here's your excuse. On a silver platter. Kai decided to take the bait.

"Alright. I'll drive."

Sorry I feel like this is taking a while to develop but I have plans for this. BTW none of the OCs are really relevant. Like, they are, don't ignore those parts, but the focus is still on Kai. And I don't plan on having any of them having a really significant relationship with Kai either (romantic or otherwise). Just so you knw, in case the addition of new characters is a bit of a deterrent. Anyway, please review! Till next time