Shout out to anyone who waited patiently for this chapter .

I know it's been close to two months since I uploaded, but between the holidays and a bit of writers block, things ended up slowing down a lot in regards to my progress. Hopefully you can all forgive me.

Days passed slowly as I awaited any hint that Wyatt may be trying to get a hold of me. Days of which slowly turned into a week, that turned into making plans to continue training with my team… something that I wasn't currently sure I was mentally in shape to do, while another part of my was relieved to have something to take my mind off of my pathetic life.

My father seemed under the impression that I was improving, currently listening to what he told me to do and staying home when I wasn't training alone without any sort of argument, which I was fine with… Riku was still having a hard time getting accustomed to his parents being split up and it was probably better for me to take a break from being the designated problem child. For the past year I had unintentionally required a lot of attention, which I was currently working hard on not taking away from him.

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I clutched my phone tightly in one hand, desperately hoping that I might get a call or text from the only person who I currently cared about hearing from and jumping just slightly at the sound of my door opening, Riku now looking up at me shyly.

I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to speak.

"Will you play with me?" He asked, keeping his eyes downward. He appeared anxious, anxiety slowly beginning to take control of him as his life continued to change before his eyes… change in ways that I had caused. He wasn't peppy and excitable anymore, instead becoming gloomy and quiet as the realization hit him that he had no real control over his life.

"I'm supposed to meet up with my team today and go over our training, remember? I'm pretty sure I reminded you yesterday."

He had become a bit obsessive about knowing where I was and when I was coming back, asking me more than once if I was going to run away again and if his dad would leave too if I did.

"Are you coming home?"

"I'm coming home, I promise."

He walked into my room, approaching where I sat and wrapping his arms around my torso. I didn't say anything regarding his affection, instead picking him up and holding him to my body.

"You're not gonna run away again?" He asked.

"No, I'm coming right back home. I'm grounded, remember?"

I actually wasn't sure if that was technically true or not… my father and I hadn't talked about it after he brought me back home and I hadn't exactly been in a state to ask or bicker about it. I had been given permission to train with my team after reminding him of the importance and insisting that I wasn't going to go anywhere afterward and he had reluctantly agreed as long as he always knew where I was and I didn't break curfew; I was also pretty sure that I now had a tracker on my phone, meaning that within the past week being at home had consisted in more rules and regulations than school had. I no longer had the freedom that I had grown accustomed to. I could currently hear him walking through the hallway, meaning that he was mere moments away from poking his head into my room and attempting to make an awkward conversation, which was exactly what he did.

"Are you sure you're in shape to go out today?" He asked, walking toward me and touching a hand to my cheek like a child. "You're still not really acting like yourself."

"Isn't obeying authority and staying out of trouble what I'm supposed to be trying to do?" I asked, helping Riku to stand back up, arms outstretched toward the father I sometimes forgot we shared. He smiled in a clearly fake manner as he picked him up, groaning slightly at how heavy he was getting.

"Technically speaking, yes… I just want to make sure you feel safe here and are comfortable opening up if you need anything."

"I can take care of myself."

Based on the week I had it was rather obvious that my statement couldn't be further from the truth and to be completely honest there had been a part of me that was surprised he hadn't attempted to hire me a babysitter based on the shit I had put everyone through.

"You're just like your mother." He sighed, rolling his eyes with what I would almost call a prideful smirk. "You can go and practice with your friends, but I want you home before dark."

"Can I go too?" Riku asked, tugging at the neck of our dads shirt.

"You spend plenty of time with your brother, how about you let him be a teenager for a little bit?"

I raised an eyebrow at his response, which sounded playful and almost mocking.

"I'm not going to the mall or the arcade." I stated. "Our training regiments are serious and I'm the captain of my team, it's my job to make sure everyone is working as hard as they can to prepare for our next tournament and I take that roll seriously. I'm almost an adult."

"No, you're almost sixteen and remembering that doesn't make you weak."

Bumping Riku, who was starting to lose his grip, back onto his hip, the two left my room and allowed me a brief amount of silence before I began getting ready, which mostly consisted of my internal debate on whether or not getting ready insisted of getting in uniform or just grabbing my blade and launcher and going in street clothes… Realistically, street clothes would get me weirder looks.

Sighing, I got up and changed while glancing at myself in the full length mirror. I had been getting a little better about eating, but my collar bone stuck out fairly significantly and the lack of muscle tone in my stomach made me look like a girl; I also had absolutely no ass whatsoever.

I had been improving for awhile… why was I still so determined to punish myself? Was this just everything that I deserved?

I sure as hell deserved it more than I deserved Wyatt…

xxx

I walked with my hands in my pockets, eyes hidden while hoping that I wouldn't need to spend too much time talking to anyone. I was there to train and honestly, that was really the only thing I wanted to do right now. I wasn't into the social scene and to be honest, all I really wanted was to be alone. Not at home or locked in my room where I still had people who could check in on me or attempt to make conversation, but truly alone. Everything was starting to go downhill yet again, I was losing control and therefore mentally shutting down in a way I hadn't in months.

"Kai!"

I heard Tyson call my name from a small distance away, startling me slightly and forcing my head upward. Like a little kid, he was currently in the process of running over to me, which said a lot seeing as he wasn't exactly the team member known for being in the greatest shape.

Giving him a small nod, I said nothing in response to his call outside of a grunt which he responded to by raising an eyebrow at me before looking me up and down for a moment.

"What the hell happened to you?" He asked, acknowledging the plethora of cuts and bruises that had begun healing into a less than pleasant green and purple color.

"Nothing." I said without emotion. "I'm fine."

"Have you been fighting again?"

"Can you just drop it?"

He stopped talking, instead now following next to me with a face that no longer wore a smile. Maybe I should have lied and told him yes, it would be less humiliating than admitting I had been beaten up by a small group of teenagers and left to rot.

It had been years since I had been subjected to those levels of homophobia, keeping myself relatively low on the radar while accepting that verbal bullying was significantly better than getting your skin melted off with an iron.

"As long as you're sure you're alright." Tyson shrugged slightly, his guard now up slightly while in my presence. "Everyone else it at my house already, you aren't late or anything like that though. Ray has been staying with me while he's here and you already know that Max lives right down the road. You kind of just happen to have the longest way to walk… I could always ask Hiro or grandpa if you need a ride."

"No offense Tyson, but if I wanted a ride I could just ask my dad for one."

I mentally kicked myself for my word choice. I didn't like calling him my dad, it felt more personal than father. It was something I had heard on television and movies a few times: a father provides you with DNA, a dad raises you.

"Honestly," Tyson smirked, "I'm still not completely used to the idea of you having a dad in the first place. I spent probably a year thinking that you were an orphan or a runaway."

"I suppose I can't claim you were that far off."

My first team had been made up mostly of runaways and delinquents, which had always been fine with me. They were accepting of the way I treated and spoke to them, likely used to it from their own home lives. They had less morals and were easier to manipulate than the friends I had now, I could use the experiences from my childhood to build that wall up, shielding me from any need to develop attachment. I hadn't cared about them and they hadn't cared about me.

"Are you getting more used to it at least? I mean, more used to having a parent in your life again?"

I shrugged, grunting at him slightly. I didn't want to talk about this, Tyson knew better than to attempt to shove his nose into my business, especially when it came to my private life.

Although I didn't look at him, I could feel his eyes staring at me, burning a judgmental hole through my skin. He could tell without much effort that something was wrong… I had finally begun to open up to him more, even if not by much, and it felt obvious how much I was attempting to backtrack from it now.

"I mean…" He started again after my lack of any real response. "You seem a bit off today, not to mention you look like absolute shit. Don't get me wrong, I may be biased since I'm the teams designated sex appeal, but you've definitely seen better days."

"Just some injuries that are healing. Bruises always eventually get to that stage where they start looking worse than when you first got them." I looked toward Tyson, hardly managing to make eye contact before awkwardly backing away once more. "I train in the woods a lot, you can't always really see where you're going, once in awhile I'll accidentally fuck myself up."

Could he tell I was lying?

"You don't really look like you tripped."

"Sorry that I wasn't injured to your liking, I'll be sure to try harder next time; feel free to fill out a fucking comment card so that I know what to do."

"You look like you got the absolute shit beaten out of you..."

"Just drop it."

"Look, I'm not gonna claim I've never been hit for being a smart ass, and I don't know what the rules were back where you grew up in regards to physical punishment, but you're dad can't just beat up on you like this, if you're having problems I can ask grandpa if you can stay with us for awhile."

It suddenly clicked what Tyson was going on about in regards to my current injuries, causing a mild blush to fill my face. Oh yeah, that was exactly what this looked like.

"My dad isn't beating me, Tyson." I corrected quickly, hoping that I hadn't dug myself into an even deeper hole. I could feel his eyes burning a hole through my skin, hoping that if he maybe tried hard enough, he would be able to read my mind and figure out what it was that I was keeping from him.

"Look, I know you've had kind of a rough year." He began again, realistically I should have known that he wasn't going to drop it. I had stupidly allowed myself to become too vulnerable lately, meaning that Tyson had been successful a few times at getting me to open up.

Making a decision to go back to my old ways and just ignore anything he asked or said without bothering with an answer, we made the short walk back to his families dojo, which we were already nearly to the entrance of anyway. Now, as I watched my world run on repeat, I was stuck dealing with the same looks of concern from the rest of my team, the friendly conversation now driven to a halt, even if the rest of them seemed to know better than to ask too many questions, not particularly surprising as I did view myself as closer to Tyson than I was the rest of my team.

"Did no one ever bother to tell any of you that staring is rude?" I huffed, pulling my launcher out from my belt loop. "I came here to train, not to be a sideshow attraction."

Tyson said nothing now, instead looking sadly at the ground in front of him before bringing his eyes to Max who gave an unknowing shrug. Rei simply sighed with discomfort and possibly sympathy, which I didn't want or need.

"What have you guys been working on?" I asked, "Have any of you managed to figure out the identity behind the hooded bladers yet?"

I couldn't remember if I had told them that my own match had ended in a draw, or the fact that I hadn't heard from my stalker since.

"We've managed to gather information." Kenny stated, "Tyson's opponent is named Ozuma and seems to be the primary leader of their team and although I haven't been able to pinpoint exactly where they're from, it seems that it's not here."

"The blond muscle head had an accent." I pointed out.

"Yeah, they all seem to, meaning that their team is likely not a part of whoever is going after Tyson."

I raised an eyebrow at my teammate, he hadn't said anything recently about the other strange group that had been giving him trouble and to be honest I hadn't given them very much thought. From what I understood himself along with Kenny and Hilary had managed to get themselves out of danger on their own.

"That's our concern right now." Tyson butted in, expression now stern. "Whoever these other people are, they've made it clear that they aren't above coming after the people who we're close with in order to get their way, which is why Charlotte is staying in America with Max's mom right now. Rei's clan should be able to manage on their own, it's unlikely that these people would go that far out of their way to get a reaction out of us, but..." He looked at me. "He was willing to kidnap two of my friends in order to get to me and I don't think they're above doing the same thing to you."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning your family and friends could be in danger." Rei stated, taking over Tyson's statement. "You aren't living the way you were last year anymore. You have a family to worry about now."

"So you think these people have been watching me?"

"We don't know yet." Said Tyson, he had cocked his head to the side slightly, making a poor attempt to hide his nerves. "Either way, you need to tell your dad what's happening right now. It would likely be best for him and your step-mom to take precaution, particularly regarding your little brother."

"My father is already in the middle of a custody battle." I told them. "If anyone finds out about this, Riku could be taken away. I might never see him again."

"They were willing to kill them, Kai..."

I froze in place, the silence around me now becoming deafening. Kenny was clutching tightly to his computer, fingers now white and shaking and Hillary looked near tears.

"What are you talking about?"

"When Hillary and Kenny were abducted by the men in the van. That was how they forced me into battle. They made it clear what was going to happen if I didn't obey… They would have killed them and not lost a wink of sleep over it."

No one said anything as the wind blew the trees around us, leaves and grass rustling and the cicadas singing the song of their people.

This had been my fear when my relationship with Wyatt had gotten serious, this was the danger that I had been referring to.

"Does anyone else know about this?"

"Our families all know, which is why we need you to make sure you're taking the same precautions."

"Have you spoken to Wyatt recently?" I asked.

"That's my other concern. I need you to give me Wyatt's new number so that we can make sure he's informed with the rest of us. It might not be a bad idea for you guys to stay here with Rei and I until we can get some questions answered."

It had taken a moment for his statement to register in my brain, meaning I was close to answering him before it dawned on me what he had asked.

"What do you mean his new number?"

"I tried calling him and his phone is disconnected, so I'm guessing he changed his number, right?"

"I haven't heard from Wyatt in over a week."

Not since I had run away from home.

Not since we had slept together.

"What do you mean?" Tyson asked. "He's your boyfriend, isn't he?"

"It's complicated." It also wasn't any of their business. "He's… mad at me… I figured he maybe didn't have cell service where he's currently training."

"Kai, this is serious. We need to make sure that everyone these people can get to are informed of their intentions and what they're willing to do."

"He changed his number." I said out loud. How had I never connected the dots?

I'm not waiting for you anymore.

He had broken up with me without words… and he had made sure that I could never hurt him again.

He had left…