The Greatest Thing to Ever Happen to Him

Who took the epinephrine?

The question pops into Kai's head as his mother drifts off to sleep with him holding her hand. He checks if the air conditioner is on at the right temperature. She's sensitive to both cold and heat. A little too much of anything affects her health to a great amount.

His eyes fall upon the meds on the table again and he vows to never let anyone other than a medical professional or himself handle them again. Sergei can't be blamed. The vials were right next to each other and are almost identical. And he took the pens out of the bag to make space, expecting more to be at home.

The pens were supposed to be in the drawers.

Who had moved them?

Granger had appeared out of nowhere with that shot. Where did he get it from? Who told him she was going through anaphylaxis? And in the off chance that he actually got here right on time, where the fuck did he get that epipen from?

Kai has never seen him carrying them around and the fool has dropped his bags spilling all the contents in front of Kai too many times for him to have missed it. He's never felt them in his pockets either.

The whole thing seems a little too convenient.

Too orchestrated and not by a divine entity.

"She's sleeping but keep an eye on her I'm stepping out for a minute," Kai says to Sergei before walking out the front door dialing Granger.

"Yeah?" comes his voice coated with thinly veiled annoyance.

"You're not at the dorm are you?" asks Kai. It's a Saturday morning. He's unlikely to be spending it inside. He's more of an outdoors, love-the-feeling-of-sunshine-on-skin type of guy.

"No?" He draws out the vowel, a question in his tone. Something about his voice makes Kai's blood pump a bit faster and harder. He doesn't like it.

"Come see me."

"Sure" he says, seeming intrigued.


"Did you take the epipens from the drawer?"

Brown eyes consider him with confusion for the shortest of instances before they harden with resentment. Odd. It looks real. "Are you asking me if I took your mother's epipens? Why would I do that?"

Kai shrugs. Folding his arms across his chest. "To get an opportunity to save her life? Have me indebted to you?"

"Oh fuck you" Tyson turns away with an incredulous laugh. "Out of all the things…" He looks at Kai again. "If I were to orchestrate something so diabolical I sure as hell wouldn't bring your fucking mother into it."

"Not like you haven't brought her into this before," replies Kai savagely.

"Not on purpose!" he shouts. They're standing on the side of the street. Kai doesn't care enough. "How many times do I have to say that I didn't know what I would find when I followed you that night?"

"So you just happened to arrive at the right moment," he says cynically.

"Yes. That is what happened."

"Where did you get the pen from?"

"My friend Michael," he points at something behind Kai, at the end of his patience. "He's at that frat party two blocks down. He always carries two pens with him because he got a peanut allergy."

Tyson hadn't move them. It was just a coincidence. He hadn't planned it. He got there, saw his mom going blue in the face and ran two blocks to that party and back to save her life.

Out of the goodness of his heart? Kai feels his lip curling with displeasure. "How fortunate"

"Indeed. You really should thank your fucking stars that I was there and that he was there."

Kai lets a bitter laugh escape him. The fucking nerve of him. Is he going to hold it over his head now?

"I don't know what your fucking problem is," Tyson mutters. "Are you mad I saved her life?"

Yes. Mad that it was him. Why did it have to be him?

"You've already said that you're never going to let me go. That you're just going to find shit to hold over my head till I do what you want me to do. Till I stop being me and stop standing up to you and your bullshit." Kai stares at his face. His tiny, ever expressive, irritating face. "I know you're not going to let me go even if I save your fucking mother's life. You're not an honourable man and you've shown me that much already. I don't expect you to free me of your own volition. I didn't take your fucking epipens, man. It wasn't me."

"You don't expect anything in return?" asks Kai, doubtfully. "How noble of you."

"I don't expect anything good from you," says Tyson. "I didn't do it for you anyway. And fyi," He steps forward, closer to Kai's face. "When I find a way to make you pay, I'll make damn sure that no one gets hurt except you. I'll only hurt you."

Kai would love to find out how he accomplishes that feat. "And how are you going to hurt me?"

His lips purse, with annoyance and pigheaded determination. "Wait a bit. I promise I'll find a way."


The club is overly loud. The way he likes it when he wants to drown out his own thoughts, but nothing seems loud enough to smother what's in his head tonight.

He orders the strongest drink they are selling and takes tiny sips from it. He doesn't like the way it smells. Everything in here is pissing him off instead of helping him relax.

His friends are somewhere nearby, up to no good. Breaking hearts as if they were as fragile as glass. He'd like to do it too except the voice in his head, that sounds too much like Granger's, tells him he's done enough damage for this month.

The month has barely started.

Do you not feel guilt? Do you not have a conscience?

I never filmed her naked, Kai wants to say. There's nothing in that tape save for some footage of your friend making a fool out of herself at a party.

Someone lied and Kai has a sneaking suspicion it was Robert the snob. He never corrected Granger. Let him believe the lie. And have him suffer.

He figures it isn't all that better because it hurt her just the same.

I'll only hurt you. I'll make sure no one gets hurt except you.

Kai looks at the drink in his glass, tilting the tumbler so the dark liquid cants forward.

You're a shitty person.

Kai agrees. He tips the drink into his mouth, and it burns in a sweet way as it goes down.

August's quota for activities that may weigh on his conscience is already full because of the Tyson Granger/Hilary Tachibana mess. Fuck Tyson Granger and all his self-righteousness. How is Mr Goody-two-shoes justifying the fact that he hooked up with the guy who hurt his best friend? How is he making peace with the trail of hickeys on his throat from the worst person he's supposedly ever met?

How does he sleep at night?

How does he live with himself?

Granger makes Kai juvenile. Runs his IQ right into the ground to join his.

They will be spending a full day together tomorrow. He can only imagine how that would go. May be one of them might finally kill the other. Who knows?

"Hi" greets a female voice. Kai turns to face an attractive young woman. She has a tiny butterfly tattoo between her collarbones with a rhinestone stuck right on its head. And a bright smile. Kai has half a mind to give her a cold shoulder but then he recalls that he hasn't been with anyone except Granger as of late. He must put an end to that unintentional exclusivity at once.

They spend an awful amount of time together already. Hooking up with each other and Granger doing him a huge favor by saving his mother's life on top of everything is blurring boundaries in a way that's making Kai uncomfortable.

Kai makes small conversation with her. She leads most of it happily. She seems like a funny, witty, entertaining person. Just his type.

Why does he want Granger who possesses traits farthest from his preferences, wishes misfortune upon him and makes him drown in regret every time?

After that first kiss Kai had vowed never to let that happen again, but then he couldn't stop thinking about it. Couldn't stop dreaming about Granger and his lips. His thoughts kept running away from him and then there was Granger, about a week later barging into the room he was in and ordering the room to be cleared because he wanted to confront Kai, demanding that he acknowledge the kiss.

The same kiss he was trying to forget but couldn't.

"Prove that it meant nothing," Tyson had said.

And Kai had thought to himself: Why am I running from my own thoughts like a coward? Why am I reluctant to acknowledge the kiss as if it meant something? Granger had a point.

Why fear it if it meant nothing?

He didn't want to just prove it to Granger but to himself as well.

And so he'd kissed him again. And again. And last Thursday, Granger had been in his lap slowing down time.

Kai's familiar with chemistry. He's been with people who could make him see stars. He's known heat but he's never known heat like this.

Never touched someone and been touched back and felt like the whole world was hanging off its axis. Like every inch of his skin had a million nerve endings and every single one of them was responding to Tyson's fingers. His skin, his mouth, his teeth.

Kai can close his eyes and easily relive those moments again because they're seared into his brain. Crystal clear. If he lingered on them for too long, he'd get fully erect.

The woman makes the first move and Kai tries not to think too much about how it doesn't hit him the same as even an accidental brush against Granger's skin.

But the kiss is still distracting and that is good enough for him right now.


"I think we should do this all the time," says Tyson, looking around adoringly at his friends.

"Clubbing?" asks Emily.

"Hanging out together." All of his friends are here in this booth. This is almost his whole world, and he couldn't be happier. "I hope we can do this when we graduate too."

"Not you being all mushy right now," comments Eddie.

"What's wrong with mushy?" asks Tyson. "I think mushy's great. It keeps us together."

Emily snorts lightly, gazing at Tyson with her chin in her hand. Michael's slung an arm around her shoulder. He's already pretty drunk. Eddie urges Rick toward the dancefloor with him, so they can 'grind on some hot chicks'.

Kenny and Hilary flank Tyson on either side. Rei and Max are listening to Tyson's spiel.

"I'd like to meet up after we graduate," says Rei. "I'd love to see you guys."

"How often?" poses Hilary. "Like do you think we'd be able to match our schedules what with all the different professions? Like Tyson, you would most likely be a pro athlete. You would be traveling everywhere."

"You think I'm going to make it to the big leagues?" he asks her.

"I think you're going to get picked up by someone really soon. As soon as next year."

"Well I've written some emails and gotten no positive responses so far, but I hope you're right. And even in that case, I'd still like us to meet up as frequently as we can. Like every couple of months or so…"

"Wow, your expectations of us are actually pretty low," comments Emily, teasing.

He flashes them a cheeky grin. "Well I'm a pragmatic guy. My expectations are always easy to meet."

Arguments go up immediately.

"That's such a lie."

"Liar!"

"A bigger lie has never been told."

Tyson laughs and ducks his head as they tease him to death and thump his back.


He loves dancing. He loves anything that gets his blood pumping and sexy dancing in a club? Definitely up there in his top 10 favorite activities list.

He puts his hands in the air and swings his hips, closes his eyes and lets the music move his body. Kenny is next to him, shimmying side to side, contained in his movements and overly aware of his surroundings but still more at ease than he used to be in these spaces. He's making major improvements in a really short amount of time. Tyson's proud of him.

Hilary's near too. Sexy under the strobe lights. Completely in her element. He's really glad they came here tonight. He has a feeling she needed this. The music, the dancing, the appreciative glances she's drawing from the people around her. It would be a boost to her self-confidence after what Kai did to her.

When a fun song comes on, that they all know, the trio look at each other and sing out the words they know at the top of their lungs, goofing off and letting loose.

Tyson's laughing, spinning like a top, like a ballerina even, taking breaks between the twirls before kicking off again. The crowd seemingly parts for a moment, as if to make sure Tyson sees, lays his eyes upon the guy in the black shirt sitting at the bar talking to a woman he can't recognize.

The guy though, he recognizes in a heartbeat because it's a face that haunts him night and day.

He stops twirling when he sees them kiss. He frowns lightly watching them, trying to recall the last time he'd witnessed a similar sight. He can't remember anything recent. Nothing from the last month.

This is a rare occurrence these days.

Had he stopped for a while? Or had he just been more careful? Tyson too distracted?

Has he been seeing other people this whole time and Tyson simply didn't know, or Tyson didn't see him with anyone because he hasn't been with anyone? Well, anyone except him.

Kai hadn't approached him, like that, since Thursday night. Why? Is he having a moment of gay panic? Or is he keeping his distance and running back to women because…because he found Tyson gross?

He's briefly disturbed by that thought and regrets showing him his dick before he reminds himself that he doesn't care what Kai thinks of him and if this means their hookups are over then that would be one of the greatest things to ever happen to him. He resumes dancing.