War and Peace

Tyson stays under the hot spray of the shower for a minute, letting the stiffness in his muscles seep out. The showers are gloriously empty today morning. It's only six, so it's kind of expected. Usually, no one would dare get themselves wet this early in the day in October, but there's hot water in the showers now. Students don't have to risk a cold shock to start their morning refreshed anymore. It's Kai's doing. The hot water.

Tyson sighs and turns the water off. When he opens his eyes, a set of sky blue irises are staring right at him.

"Aah!" He slips, and falls on his butt. "Brooklyn, what the fuck?"

"Where did you go?" inquires the guy. Still in his abnormally large grey hoodie from last night.

Jesus, his dick is out. Tyson covers himself with a palm as he stands up and yanks the towel from where it's hung on a hook nearby. "Why were you staring at me?"

"You looked like you went some place," says Brooklyn, but it's mostly musing and to himself. Then he comes back down to earth. "Where did you go last night? You just disappeared. I searched the entire building for you."

"I'm sorry I ran out," he doesn't explain any further, tying the towel around his waist. Water drips from the shower, filling the silence. "Brook, why did you take me there?" he asks, something he's been wanting to ask since he stepped into that gym or arena or basement or whatever that place is. "How come no one in our uni knows about it except a handful of people?"

He sees Brooklyn's face grow thin, but oddly determined. "Tala" he says, balling his fists. "The answer to all of the questions in your head is Tala. He," he takes a deep breath, "Him and Julia, they control the gossip in this campus. Anything they don't want getting out, won't see daylight. When I found out about the tournament, he came to my room the next day and threatened to leak my photos if I told anyone about it. They're afraid Dean Valkova would catch wind of the tournament and shut them down."

"Wait, your photos?" Tyson frowns, taking a step forward.

Brooklyn nods, expression distraught. "He has pictures of me. In my underwear. In really unflattering poses," he adds under his breath, before bursting out with anger, "I have no idea how he got hold of them! He's blackmailing me. Blackmailing. I hate him. I knew I had to tell someone. If he hadn't come into my room that day may be I wouldn't have told someone immediately. I like keeping secrets and knowing things others don't, but how dare he. I couldn't sleep that night. I walked out of my room and swore to myself, the first person I see in these halls, I will tell them everything. It was after midnight so there weren't a lot of students around, so it took a while, but you showed up on my third lap around the halls. I was so happy it was you. You were fighting with Kai at the time and I knew they were moving in the ring that day. I thought you could use it as ammo against him and his posse." Brooklyn examines Tyson's expression after he says it. "I heard you two weren't fighting anymore, but I thought you'd like to see Kai get beat up a little. He was good last night, but he takes a few punches occasionally. Why did you run out? Did the blood scare you?"

"Something like that," says Tyson, raking fingers through his hair to get the water out. "How did you find out about the tournament anyway?"

"Through an online forum," says Brooklyn. "I like to lurk on local sites. Someone started a forum and spread a link around saying that he had hot tea on the popular people in campus. That's how I found out. I signed up using the link to the Blitzkrieg's official page. Tala showed up at my door the day after and threatened me to never speak about it to another soul or he'll cut my tongue out and leak my pictures."

"Cut your tongue out?" Tyson asks, eyes wide. "Was he fucking serious?"

"Yes, fucking serious, but he still let me go 'cause I'm paying for it. They're not going to turn down money." He clenches his jaw after he says it, looking stubborn. "I like going there. The matches are exhilarating. They change locations every year, and I was happy they were using the campus this time. Easier to get in and out that way," Brooklyn explains. "But that also means they have to be extra careful. I just wish they weren't such pricks about it. Especially Tala. Why did he have to come along and ruin the fun?"

He looks sad. Really sad. Tyson feels bad about it. "How did he get your pictures?" he asks, crossing his arms. "Did he hack your phone?"

"I don't know!" Brooklyn flails his arms. "I never had nude photos in my phone."

"Did you ever have a roommate?" Tyson asks.

And Brooklyn's eyes light up. "Once. When I first joined."

"What happened to him?"

"He moved out after I set his hair on fire. It was an accident!" he cries when he sees Tyson's disbelieving stare. "He put too much product in his hair and I held the candle a little too close while he was sleeping, but that's ancient history."

"I'm pretty sure Tala got your photos from him," says Tyson.

"Really?"

"Yes, really." He starts walking out of the showers. His skin is getting cool and his feet pruney. Brooklyn follows him.

"Did you like it? Will you go with me again?"

"I don't know," he says. "Why is Gao working for them?"

"He owes them, I think." They exit the showers and round a corner. The lights end here. The rest of the hallway is unlit. Miguel is dancing in the corridor. Right below the light of the last bulb that is on.

"Miguel, what the fuck are you doing, man?" asks Tyson.

"Practising for halloween" he says, panting, halting his movements. "We're doing a flash mob."

"Oh" says Tyson.

"You guys should join. The bigger the better, the more the merrier and all that."

"No" he says at the same time, Brooklyn says, "I can't dance."

"Tyson, you can dance. I saw you that time in the courtyard. You're pretty good."

"Mmm" He scrunches up his face regretfully. "I'm busy. I have a shit ton of workload and track practice on top of that. There's a big meet coming up-"

"It'll be funnn!" Miguel insists, full of energy and spunk. "Come on, man. The steps are easy. We have a week left. Thirty minutes of practice every afternoon. It won't take much of your time. We'll be dancing in costume! Picture this: You in a prince charming outfit dancing under a full moon with forty other people in front of the center fountain!"

Usually, Tyson would have said yes by now. It won't take this much coaxing for him to agree to put on a show. But the impending conversation with Kai is casting a gloom over him, weighing him down and making every other thing in his life seem like a heavy burden to carry.

"Fine" he concedes at last. "No prince charming outfit though. I will be picking my own."

"Great! Practice at three-thirty. Brooklyn-?"

"No" says Brooklyn, putting a whole hand up in front of Miguel's face.

Miguel nods, taken aback. "Okay" he whispers.

Tyson walks ahead, eager to put on a shirt before he freezes in the hallway. There's loud screaming music coming from the room closest to the bathroom. The door is open. Robin is leaning against the jamb, filing his nails and chewing on a gum. Tyson pauses at their door where it's written in bold rainbow-coloured glittering letters - 'Gay Lives Matter, Cunts!'

Robin has long curly blonde hair and big golden hoops in his ears. He stops filing his nails and tilts his head inquisitively at Tyson when he sees him lingering.

"Hi" Tyson says with a smile, a small thunder in his chest.

Robin's gaze glides up and down confusedly over Tyson's form multiple times before he replies with saccharine sweetness. "Hey" His teeth is pearly white.

"Who's that?" he hears someone ask from inside the room. Ronnie. His roommate.

"No one," he calls over his shoulder. "Just Tyson Granger." He looks back at him and gives him a polite smile. "Was there something you needed?"

"No" Tyson shakes his head. "Just wanted to say hi."

"Okay. Hi." He's in a silk bathrobe and his eyes have glitter hugging their corners.

"Hi" Tyson swallows and wonders what else to say. His brain seems to have run off.

It gets uncomfortable after he spends two long seconds without saying anything. "Have a nice day!" he says at last and whirls around, striding back to his room swiftly.

"You too!" Robin calls after him.


He sighs when he's back inside his room and the door is closed.

Max stirs in bed, a baby chick in a blanket burrito. He always sleeps like that. No matter which season it is.

Tyson tiptoes to his closet and dresses as quietly as he can. When he's clothed again, he climbs into bed next to Max.

"Tyson?" Max props himself onto an elbow and looks down at him. Confusion written all over his face. He rubs his eyes and looks at him again, scowling hard. Tyson meets his eyes, all his emotions apparent on his features. Max lies back down and asks him softly, "What's wrong?"

He tells him what he saw. From the dank insides of the building to the shock he experienced in the basement. Max puts an arm over him and whispers consolingly.

"I think I saw sums as big as 60,000 dollars going around. They're fucking with dollars."

"That's insane."

"And no one has absolutely any idea of it. It's crazy. There are like, hundreds of people down there. Men, women, some Japanese. Some fucking Chinese. I have no idea. How are they sneaking all those people in without alerting security?"

"That building is on the edge of campus. That probably helps."

"I can't believe Rei never said a word to us."

"May be he was blackmailed into silence too."

Max stares at the ceiling, his mind probably reeling the same way Tyson's is. "Did you see anyone else we know?"

"Gao, some third years," Tyson counts on his fingers. "I can't really recall their names. I've seen their faces around campus."

Max chews on the nail of his thumb. "Did Brooklyn say where he got the link from?"

"No"

They stare at each other. "Are you going to talk to Kai?"

Tyson sighs and burrows further into the sheets. "I mean I have to," he speaks into the blanket. "Right?" His phone is in his pocket. He feels it buzz with a text. "Hold on. Someone just texted me."

He takes his phone out and taps on the screen.

06:17 Kai: Can we meet?

Tyson takes a deep breath.

"You should talk to him," says Max, reading the text with him. Tyson hovers with his thumbs over the keyboard. His heart hammering in his chest.

He feels the cloud above his head grow in size till it's crowding him in. Closing in on him from all sides. But he stares at the time stamp beside the text. Seventeen minutes past six. He probably waited up.

"It's probably killing him," says Tyson, staring at the phone. "Not knowing."

A part of him wants to see Kai right away. Another part of him doesn't.

He ends up agreeing to it anyway.

06:20 to Kai: Ok

06:20 Kai: See you in 15. [Address attached]


He pairs a white t-shirt with a denim jacket and black jeans. He combs his hair out well, taking his time in front of the mirror before picking up his satchel and going to the park to meet Kai.

The tree he's leaning on is nice on his back. He gazes at falling leaves and the white cloudy sky.

Five minutes after he gets there, a sleek black Porsche pulls up to the curb and Kai steps out. A simple black t shirt and jeans on.

Tyson sucks in a breath and shifts against the tree.

Kai pockets his keys as he walks up to him. His eyes are guarded when they meet Tyson's. His shoulders a little stiff.

He wonders if Kai sustained any injuries to his torso during the fight.

Tyson straightens when he reaches him. He tries for a smile but his lips refuse to lift. Kai's jaw is clenched tight when Tyson touches a delicate palm to its side. Then he relaxes. A tiny bit. A tiny exhale. And he steps close to Tyson.

Tyson touches his hair, the locks that are hanging over his forehead and eye and kisses him. A chaste press of his lips against Kai's.

Kai relaxes then. The tension rolling out of him in a breath. His hands fitting around Tyson's waist. He deepens the kiss. Opening Tyson's mouth with his.

Tyson pulls away, after pressing one more kiss to his lips.

Kai leans his forehead against Tyson's, who searches for the cut on his temple he knows is there. He saw him bleed from it last night.

Kai flinches away from his touch when he tries to look at it more closely.

"No" says Tyson, gently attempting to make him turn his face to the side, "let me see".

The skin had been peeled away from his temple by the force of Bull's punch. He meets Kai's eyes. His careful irises and his long, long lashes. "I'm glad you're okay," Tyson whispers, caressing his cheek, "I was worried. He looked big."

Kai pulls in a breath and steps away from him, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I know you're mad, Tyson," he says, the corners of his mouth hardening.

"Over what?" he asks. "Over you beating someone up to near death?"

His gaze shifts then, the walls lifting and the fire behind it unveiling as he looks at him. A sharp, resentful smile cuts across his face and disappears. "You're funny," he says, looking away.

"You punched his face. Repeatedly. Till his blood was all over you. Do you hear what I'm saying? Can you hear how fucking fucked up that is?"

Kai keeps his jaw turned away as he licks his lips, a vein ticking in his neck.

"I didn't even know you were capable of something like that," says Tyson. "Why did you do it?" he asks. "Why- why do you do this? Is this something that you-?"

"They sent him to kill me," says Kai, finally breaking his silence. Tyson jolts back. Alarmed.

"What?" he asks, unable to get his head around what he just said. "K-kill you? What do you mean? Why would somebody want to kill you?"

Kai turns to look at him. "The fucking horsemen, Tyson. They want me dead."

"Why?" asks Tyson, not getting it. Not getting it at all.

"I run a fucking business and it makes a lot of money and they want it."

Tyson stares at him. Astonished. "Is your business beating people up? Why do you need a business?"

"To make money," he says. "I don't want my family's money. I need to get myself educated. I need the money. This is the one thing that I know how to do that brings in a lot of cash."

"So you beat people up for money?"

"I don't beat people up," he says, stepping up to him. "I fight. Bryan fights. You saw your friend fighting last night? That's what I do. May be we cut each other up a bit and there's blood, but it's just a fucking sport."

"You almost killed that guy last night!" shouts Tyson. "How is that a fucking sport?"

"It was self-defense," says Kai, gritting his teeth. "He came in there to gut me. I did it to him first. It was either him or me."

"You keep saying that. It's either them or me."

"Life is about survival, Tyson," he says, his anger getting less explosive and turning into a slowly burning flame. "You're standing here right now because someone fought for your freedom in the past."

Tyson goes quiet, mulling over his words. "Are you trying to justify violence?" he asks.

"Sometimes violence is the best way to solve a problem. What do you think I should have done? Sat him down and talked to him?"

"Yes" Tyson nods.

"Did he look like he wanted to talk?" asks Kai.

Tyson doesn't have a retort to that. "Violence isn't the answer to anything," he says at last.

"Do you really believe that?" asks Kai.

"I do"

"Are you that naïve?" The question makes Tyson grind his teeth together. "Violence solves problems everyday. Our country is free and flourishing because our ancestors fought for its freedom. Do you think they had tea and talked it over? They fought for it and won it with violence. And people will take it from us if we don't protect it with violence. The same goes for everything else we have. You can close your eyes and say it's wrong to kill, and that violence is bad but the reason you're able to do that is because someone did the dirty work for you. It's in our nature."

Tyson stares at him. He really is justifying violence. A leaf falls on top of his head. "Are you saying it's right to kill?" he asks, outraged.

"No. It's wrong to kill." Kai removes the leaf from his head. It flutters out of his hand. "But sometimes you have no better choice."

He can't agree with him. It's fucked up. He knows it is, but a part of him is starting to see things from Kai's point of view. And agreeing with it.

"Say something," Kai nudges him after a minute of silence from him.

"I don't have anything to say. I don't agree with you."

"You don't?" asks Kai, stepping closer to him, tilting his head to look at Tyson's face. "You think they had tea?" he asks.

No. He doesn't think that. He doesn't know what to think. "I don't know," he says, trying to back away from Kai and finding the tree blocking his path. "I can't think," he says at last, throwing up his hands. "You're standing so close. It's making it difficult for me to think. I need...I need space!"

Kai takes a step back from him. Thinking that's what he meant.

Tyson shakes his head, sighing. "Not that kind of space."

He nods then. His face growing guarded again as he understands what he's asking for. "I'll give you space," he says, putting his hands back into his pockets.

Tyson has his hanging limply by his sides.

They stare at the ground by their feet. The leaves scattered all over it. Brown and orange and red and yellow. Colours of autumn.

Tyson takes a breath and lets it go. He sees the gap between him and Kai and knows that it's not one he can bridge at the moment. Its growing with their silence. With each minute that passes without either of them saying a word to each other.

Kai turns away in the end, walking back to his car after a nod of farewell to Tyson.

He fists his hands by his sides and tells himself not to go after him, but he ends up doing exactly that. Running up to him and kissing him. Kai draws him in, breathing in and pulling him to himself. His feet leave the ground at one point.

Then Kai places him back on his feet and Tyson tells him he'll come back. He will. He just needs to figure some things out before that.

Kai kisses him once more, like he doesn't want to let Tyson go.

Tyson waves at him before he drives away, and when he does, he stares after the car.