The Proposal

Kai takes a step back from him.

Tyson looks scared and confused. When he starts walking towards the gates Kai doesn't stop him.

He'd kissed him. He hadn't planned to. Tyson was supposed to come to him, be the one to swallow his pride so he could touch Kai. Tyson was supposed to want him more.

But he'd just went and fucked that up.

Why?

Because Tyson had been frightened to within an inch of his life and when he'd seen Kai after he simply looked pissed. All stormy and furious, throwing the drink at him, pushing him, fighting him. And Kai has never met someone so resilient. Someone who never gives up.

Most people give up. It's not easy to just keep fighting. Keep pushing. Finding strength and hope inside of you even when you know it's pointless. Everything's shitty anyway. So Kai's done it a lot too.

People give up all the time.

Tyson doesn't.

He never did.

Kai wanted to eat him. Unlock his jaws like a panther and consume him whole. All his hope and resilience. Everything he is.

Kai wants all his light for himself.

This person who seems to better the lives of everyone around him. Who cares for the people in his life so fucking much he would do anything for them.

Repeatedly and willingly puts himself in front of the things that threaten his people.

He's like an itch under his nails that he can't scratch off.

Kai rams his fist into a tree and his knuckles come away bleeding.

Where the fuck did Tyson go?

He's trying to call an uber when Kai finds him.

"This late at night they're going to take a while to get here," says Kai. "If you don't want your ass to get mugged you should just get in the damn car."

He opens and closes his mouth, indignant. "I'm not getting in that car with you."

"Fine, then," says Kai, opening the driver side door. "Die"

He gets in. Unlocks his phone and scrolls through his texts for a minute looking for any that required his immediate attention. Tyson lingers awfully close to the car for a while before he climbs inside and slams the door.

"Careful with that," says Kai, not taking his eyes off his phone. "The door costs more than what I could get for all your parts combined."

He makes a sound that's between a huff and a snort. "So you've thought about selling me for parts in the black market."

"Of course" he answers smoothly, typing out a reply to Takeshi's invite for a drink tomorrow evening. "I had to find a way to pay for the damages to my bike if you smashed it."

He feels Tyson's incredulous gaze on him.

Kai lights a cigarette without looking at him. It gets snatched from his mouth and thrown out a window in seconds.

"You're not smoking with me in the car," says Tyson. "If you want lung cancer that bad you can do it away from me."

"And die before you do?" Kai turns his head to look at him. "Not a chance in hell."

"But what if you did?"

"I'll haunt your ass."

Tyson laughs and it's a pretty sound. It's short and full of snorts and his shoulder shakes but his voice is there, boyish and charming. Kai likes it a lot.

"Just drive"

It rains on the way back. Kai had decided to take the longer route to campus just to get on Tyson's nerves but it ends up backfiring on him as rainwater pummels the car nearly to the ground.

"Pull over!" Tyson's saying, hands raised to the sides of his head. Dramatic as usual.

He can barely see through the windshield. The water completely obscures his view on all sides. It's just..darkness in front of him. He glimpses a pair of headlights ahead but barely. Thunder cracks overhead and Tyson yells at him to pull over again.

"Just fucking pull over, oh my god, you're going to kill us both!"

Kai finally stops the car on the side of the road and they sit in silence as heavy rain and loud thunder fully shrouds them, making the space inside seem very small and unsafe.

Tyson pulls his feet up and wraps his arms around his legs making himself a tinier target.

"Don't tell me you have a fear of thunderstorms or something," Kai says drily. "I'm not holding your hand".

"Oh fuck off, I don't have a fear of thunderstorms."

"Then why are you sitting like that?" he asks.

"I can sit however I want," says Tyson.

"I don't want your nasty feet on my upholstery." Kai glances at his sock clad feet pressed against the seat.

Tyson raises a single daring eyebrow at him and doesn't move.

There's a crack in the air so loud that they both jump.

"Ha!" Tyson laughs. "Now who's scared?"

"You're juvenile," says Kai, settling down again.

He makes an amused sound, lips still pulled in a grin. Very giggly today.

"We're in a super precarious situation, Kai. I wouldn't pick a fight with me right now."

"Oh what would you do?" Kai lets out a snort. "I'm terrified."

"You think it's all a game." Tyson shakes his head. "But if we fight now it wouldn't end well I promise you that."

Kai looks out the window on his side. The suggestion of what else they could do right now sitting at the front of his mind.

He hears the sound of Tyson unbuckling his seatbelt.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he asks turning around to see him clambering in between the seats.

"Moving to the back," he says with some strain. Then his flailing limbs disappear and there's a groan of satisfaction from the back. "Feels safer"

Kai's immediately uncomfortable in the driver's seat all of a sudden. Something about someone being in the back and him being in the front. Especially when it's someone that he doesn't trust not to stab a knife into his spine.

He follows.

"What the hell are you doing?" spits Tyson.

"It's my car," says Kai in retort, getting comfortable in the new space. There's more room back here. Safer too.

In a sense, he thinks as he watches the water cascade down the windshield.

There's the sound of Tyson moving, breathing, the shift of fabric as he finds it hard to sit still, his boot tapping on the floor.

Kai wonders how long it'll take him to break the silence between them.

Not that long it turns out because he speaks a few minutes later, "Do you think we'll be out here all night?"

Kai shrugs. "No clue"

It doesn't seem like the rain will let up anytime soon.

He's listening to the sounds outside when Tyson asks, "Have you always been such an asshole?"

He rolls his eyes. "Yes, Granger. I'm irredeemable," he answers.

"A real thorn in your parents' side I bet," he shoots back, huffing. "They probably considered putting you up for adoption once or twice."

Kai looks at him, with a smile curling on his lips that even he doesn't know what for. May be it's because of the way Tyson says things when he's pissed at Kai but not completely furious at him. May be it's because they're both sitting here in the back and Tyson hadn't moved away when Kai's shoulder had brushed his arm as he was settling in.

"What?" he demands. "What are you smiling about?"

"I bet you were always as nosy and noisy as you are now," says Kai.

He looks like he's going to argue against that for a moment but then he changes his mind and says with a shrug, "Worse actually."

Kai snorts. Finding that funny.

"Well, I was." It seems he's proud that he's changed or grown. "Grandpa used to tell me to stop yelling all the time while he was yelling at me. Our house was loud even when it was just the two of us. Still loud. I hate the silence."

"Has your brother always been such an asshole?" Kai asks because he's been wanting to ask and for some reason he hates this absent brother that Tyson never talked about. He sees the hit land like a bomb. Tyson looks at him speechless, wide-eyed, fumbling for words.

"What- wh-" He gives up on his attempts to answer him right away. It takes him a whole minute or two to come up with, "My brother is not an asshole."

It's soft.

He picks on his nails.

Kai doesn't want him to think he cares. Doesn't want to give him the wrong idea. "Guess it's your family who wanted to put you up for adoption."

He bristles. "At least I had a brother to play with till I was ten," he hisses at him, leaning into his space. "I know you were lonely as fuck in that house." He bares his teeth and he's all sharp and jagged edges now, seething, aiming to hurt Kai in return. "Both your parents being workaholics, and the rest of your family…well, they were probably just like you are now," he says, guessing, eyes darting over Kai. "Cold and mean. Yeah, you were lonely. That's why you turned out the way you did. Your parents were the first to break your heart. Your father when he cheated on your mother and your mother when she decided to give up-"

"Tyson" he shouts his name, not wanting to hear anymore, startling him out of it. His breath comes out shaky, anger and hurt swimming in his veins. "Keep going and I'll rip your tongue out of your head," he warns.

Tyson leans back, blinking, looking like he's coming back to his senses. Guilt takes over his features in seconds. Pretty pretty eyes looking down in shame. "I-"

"No" he cuts him off. Kai wants to do horrible things to him. How dare he look guilty? How dare he act like he regrets his actions? How dare he try to apologize for hurting Kai when that was was what he wanted to do in the first place? When it's what he's planning to do in the future?

Kai clenches his fists, wanting to curl them around Tyson's neck, wring the life out of him.

Tyson meets his eyes and he still looks apologetic. And Kai wants to hit things, hurt things. Cause damage to everything around him the way he'd done to him.

"You're sorry?" Kai manages to ask, barely holding himself together.

He looks conflicted now.

"Make up your mind, Granger. For fuck's sake, go through with your threats for once and don't be a pussy about it afterwards. Own up to it. Stop making me the villain every damn time. Be a man," he hisses at him. "Be a man, Granger."

Tyson slaps him.

His cheek stings.

Kai has his eyes closed, his face turned to the side. He exhales slowly before turning to face him again.

But when he turns a pair of soft lips press against his. He stills. Surprised. He kisses back. Once softly. Then harder.

And he thinks: fuck it. He'll take what he can get.

He pulls him into his lap and Granger comes willingly, his arms fitting around Kai's neck and his thighs sliding snugly around his hips. And he thinks they're both insane.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asks against his lips.

"What's wrong with you?" Tyson shoots back.

Kai kisses him breathless, marks his neck again because it gives him a thrill to inconvenience and embarrass him at the same time. Also he makes the loveliest noises during the process.

They get carried away.

Ridding each other of every last shred of clothing like touching just a few patches of exposed skin isn't enough and they need to touch everywhere as if it's not the back of his own car and the sky isn't threatening to collapse on their heads.

Kai just wanted him naked because he's been wanting to see him fully naked and the sight of him laying like that on leather cushions is an image he's not going to forget in a long time.

And Tyson wanted to return the favour it seemed.

He's lying between his legs, their cocks grazing and the air growing humid when Tyson asks, lips brushing his, "Do you want to fuck?"

There have been very few times in Kai's life (before he met Granger) where he wasn't able to predict a person's actions. He likes to think of himself as a good judge of character.

And he usually is able to accurately predict what a person is most likely to do in a scenario.

And in this scenario of them hooking up, Kai had always seen himself as the first to propose actual sex.

Not Tyson I've-only-been-with-two-girls Granger. And certainly not Tyson I'm-a-beacon-of-morality Granger.

"You want to what?" Kai almost chokes.

Tyson winds a finger around the chain Kai's wearing, looking nervous and pleased with himself for shocking Kai at once. "Do you want to fuck?" he asks without stuttering. Kai's amazed. "Have proper sex with me?"

He's having a hard time believing that this is real. That it is not a dream. He takes longer than it should be okay for him to say, rather softly, and with a frown because he still doubts if this moment is real, "yeah"

Tyson blinks and the tops of his cheeks grow darker. He's blushing. His Adam's Apple bobs as he swallows and takes a breath. "Okay" he says softly too.

He wonders what's going through his mind.

"Now?" Kai asks, a little too fucking eager. He loathes himself.

Tyson, the annoying fucker, snorts derisively. "No" Then he looks almost shy again as he proposes, "This Saturday?"

Oh

Oh god

It's a new feeling again. An unfamiliar sensation passing over his skin. "Why Saturday?" he asks and his voice is lower than he's ever heard it in his entire life.

"I'm free that day."

Kai nods, almost dumbly.

This can't be real.

Tyson twists the chain around his fingers, tightening it around Kai's throat and tugs him down with it.