The Time-Space Continuum or Whatever

"Love how it's raining today," says Tyson, joining his bros in the hallway. He's transfixed by the pattering on the windows along the wall next to them so he doesn't immediately notice that his friends are all staring at him. With eyes as big as saucers.

"What?" he asks as the deafening silence continues. "Do I have something on my face?"

"More like…" replies Eddie, drawing out his vowels and reaching out to flick the lapel of Tyson's jacket, "on your neck."

His subconscious mind figures out what it is before his actual conscious brain does and so by the time he realizes what they're talk about he's already hot from head to toe.

He's got hickeys, hasn't he?

The mortification makes him want to dissolve into the floor. Disappear into the bowels of the earth. Make a deal with Satan and sacrifice Kai in exchange for erasing this moment from the time-space continuum.

Oh man. He should have looked in the mirror at least once as he was rushing out of the dorm today morning. He's so fucked.

The questioning starts immediately.

"Who was it?"

"Is it someone we know?"

"This happened last night," deciphers Michael, with all the enthusiasm of a gossip journalist. "You hooked up with someone last night and we heard nothing about it."

"Damn, did she maul your neck." Rick leans forward to get a better look. "And in a good way. Must have felt amazing. Who was she?" he asks in awe.

Tyson slaps a hand on the side of his throat to hide the marks and wonders why he didn't do that earlier. "I have no idea what you guys are talking about," he says, cheeks aflame and trying to think of a lie.

"Oh my god" Michael's voice drops to a whisper and his eyes bug out to a comical size as he thinks of someone in his head. "Was it Julia?" He almost croaks while saying her name.

Tyson opens his mouth and shuts it. How did he even reach to that conclusion?

"You've been hanging out with her a lot lately," says Rick, mind reeling.

"The only girl other than Hilary and Em. It has to be her. Holy fucking shit!" Eddie is bouncing. He's about to shoot off into the stratosphere.

Thankfully the bell rings and Tyson has an excuse to run from his crazy band of friends. He dodges their questions as he makes his way towards class. "Blalala, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I gotta go to class."

"Tyson!" They screech after him like baby birds crying for a bite of food.

"Did you do it on purpose?" he asks as soon as he finds him on the bridge between the tops of two towers. Before he's even turned around. "To embarrass me in front of my friends?"

"Do what?" Kai turns to face him and Tyson unzips his jacket to show him the marks. His gaze falls upon his neck and something indecipherable passes through his eyes. "Of course your dumb ass doesn't know how to cover it up." He leans against the bannister. "Are your friends asking questions?"

"Yeah" says Tyson, about to launch into the happenings of that morning but then he remembers that Kai's probably only concerned about one thing. "Don't worry," he says, mockingly. "I didn't tell them the truth."

He zips his jacket back up and gazes down the length of the bridge. A few students walk past it on the other side. He knows he looks funny with his collar touching his chin but it's better than parading the hickeys around campus. "It isn't anything worth bragging about," he says.

"It truly isn't," says Kai, words dripping with disdain.

Tyson huffs, casting him a nasty glance. Oh it's a shameful secret to the both of them alright. This conversation is done. He should go back to the courtyard and meet Hilary. "Did you need me for something or…" he asks, making sure that Kai won't call him up for some stupid reason when he's hanging on the ground floor with his friends.

Kai's eyes flick down his frame and back up once (Tyson ignores), then he gives a slight shake of his head.

"Okay. I'm gonna go then." He walks back the way he came.

Kai is opening a small tub of yoghurt when Tala crashes into the seat beside him and whisper-shrieks at Julia, "You slept with Granger?"

His hand pauses for a brief moment before he peels the whole cover away and sets it on the table, picking up a spoon.

"What?" She pulls a confused face from where she sits across Kai. "No."

"Well everyone's saying you did."

It's true. Kai had heard a few people whispering about it on his way to lunch.

"Why are they saying that?"

"Granger showed up with a bunch of love bites on his neck today morning and you two have been basically joined at the hip lately. So two plus two."

"That would be a five I'm afraid," says Julia. "Because it wasn't me. And before you ask I don't know who it was from either. I haven't talked to him today." She looks over her shoulder with a smile towards Granger's table, watching him with fondness and curiosity.

Kai follows her line of sight.

He has his jacket pulled as high up his neck as it would go. His entire table seems to be teasing him about something. About the rumour, Kai guesses. Granger shakes his head and puts it in his hands. He looks up two seconds later and says what seems like, "Can you guys just leave me alone?"

And when they refuse to do so he turns and shoots daggers at Kai.

He's annoyed. It brings Kai joy to know that the rumour is an inconvenience to him. But he's sure some part of him, however small, is thrilled to have his name linked to Julia's in such a rumor. He used to have a crush on her back in his freshman year after all.

Kai gives him a not so sympathetic smile and digs into his yoghurt.

Music plays from the mini Bluetooth speakers at a pleasant volume as Tyson pops open a bottle of sake and pours it into two wine glasses that Tyson got from Rei who got them as gifts from his uncle who owns a winery.

They're currently in Hilary's room keeping up their drinks night tradition. Hilary's telling Tyson all about her new found passion for romance novels.

There's this book she recently read and she's obsessed with it.

"Thank you" she pauses to say as she accepts the glass from him.

He lays back against the pillows and stretches out his legs, getting comfortable.

"So where was I?" asks Hilary, sitting with her ankles crossed.

"He just showed up at her doorstep," says Tyson.

"Right. So he's like 'I know you missed me.' All smooth and sexy."

The story's kind of cute. It's about two childhood friends who lose contact when they go to college and then meet again in the city after graduation and fall in love. Tyson listens intently as they both slowly get drunk.

"Hil, are you trying to say something to me?" he asks, with the nearly empty bottle of sake balanced on his stomach.

She bursts out laughing. "Yes! I'm so glad you're getting the message."

"Because childhood friends…that's us." He points at her, turning his head to look at her.

Hilary's eyes snag on something and she touches the base of his neck. "Who are you cheating on me with?"

Tyson closes his eyes, sighing. He was hoping she wouldn't ask.

"Are you really hooking up with Julia?"

"No" he says easily because he doesn't want to lie to her. He opens his eyes to gaze at her. "I can't tell you. They don't want anyone to know."

"Not even me?" Hilary's forehead creases.

"Sorry" says Tyson in an apologetic tone. "It's not something I'm proud of and kind of want to forget. I'll tell you another time."

"Oh" Worry colours her features. "Do you think it's gonna happen again?"

Tyson looks at the way her hair frames her face. Her kind face. "I don't know."

He's half asleep when his phone rings and violently jolts him up. "Oh fuck, who is it?" He unlocks the screen, squinting like a grandpa and brings the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"I have an assignment due at midnight."

"Okay, and?"

"It won't type itself," says Kai.

Tyson lets out a long suffering sigh. Hilary snores loudly behind him. "I'm sort of drunk."

"That's not my problem. I need it done by midnight."

"Well, if you want it done right-"

"You will do it right."

He pulls the phone away from his ear and glares lasers at the screen. 'Dick' glares back at him.

"How am I supposed to do that when I'm drunk?" snaps Tyson.

"You said you were just 'sort of drunk'. I have faith in you." He's so…

"No, you don-" Tyson starts to say but the line goes dead. He's going to kill him.

He walks there and it helps him sober up some. Kai's all set up in the patio studying with slight rain drizzling on the grass ten feet away from him.

There isn't much time left till midnight.

He has to rush. He grabs the laptop, takes over the loveseat as Kai deserts it ( he gets up as soon as Tyson sits down. It's crazy.) and does his best to beat time.

He almost doesn't make it but he does. He swears those last twenty minutes of stress (while Kai was strolling around with a drink) took two full years out of his lifespan. When he clicks submit at 11:59 pm and it reads 'assignment submitted' on the screen he flops back on the cushions and heaves an enormous sigh of relief.

The awning is pretty, he thinks.

It's quiet around him. He can see nothing but the pretty rainy night and the pretty awning above him. Yet he feels…miserable. He feels fucking horrible.

She's 'getting her fix' of love from romance novels instead of going out there and dating. She's hesitant to get close to people and there's only one person responsible for that. For putting fear in a girl who never hesitated to chase love before.

"You're a fast typer," says Kai.

Tyson sits up. "And you're a shitty person," he says, looking at him. He finds that it doesn't even phase him. "Why are you doing this?" he asks and he feels it all starting to gush out of him. "What did we do that was so horrible that you think that we deserve this? What did Hilary do to deserve all this?"

He's been wondering for months. How what he's doing seems fair to Kai. How's he's justifying it in his head. What he's telling himself so he can sleep at night.

"You've scared her," he tells Kai because he needs to know what he's doing to her. It needs to sit on his conscience. "She's afraid to trust people now and it's all because of you. I know you knew that it was her first time. She trusted you with it. And you went ahead and did the worst thing you could have possibly done. Do you not feel guilty? Do you not have a conscience?"

Kai walks over and sits on the arm of the loveseat, leaning towards Tyson. "I made you a deal that that video would never see the light of day if you held up your end of the bargain."

"And so now the responsibility of keeping that video from leaking falls upon her friend. What did she do to deserve any of this?"

"She doesn't," he says simply. She is just collateral.

Tyson feels livid.

"So all of it is because I punched you once? Threw a book at you? Called you names? How fragile of an ego do you have that you think both me and Hilary deserve to be tormented over it? How is this an appropriate reaction?"

"It's not about the punch," he says, frowning a bit. "That's not what it's about."

"What is it about then?"

"You" he says, his voice soft, his gaze raking over his face, like he's trying to figure out why Tyson doesn't get it. "I don't like you."

Tyson's mouth falls open, stunned. That's it? He rears away from Kai, attempting to wrap his head around it. His voice almost disappears inside of him as he asks, "What do you not like about me?"

He gives a small shake of his head like he can't point out just one thing. "Your personality" he says. "Your demeanor. It's…you're everything I hate."

The 'it' he's talking about here is Tyson.

"How immature" he whispers.

"Immature?" Kai raises his brows.

"What else is it? You don't like someone so you decide to make his life hell at the slightest of provocation."

"It wasn't that slight."

Tyson leans into his face. "Who does things like that? 'Oh I don't like the way this person is so I'm gonna go and torment him because he rightfully punched me once'. Egotistical and immature is what you are."

He yelps as he gets bitten. On the lip. He feels his veins catch on fire as Kai's teeth sinks in and frees his bottom lip. It throbs. Blood blooms.

Tyson returns the favor, kissing him right back or biting rather. It's all teeth. He yanks at his collar and pulls him down from his perch on the arm of the loveseat. He falls on top of him, his knee just missing his hip. He hears a heavy clunk to his left as Kai somehow manages to set the tumbler in his hand safely on the coffee table.

He takes out his anger on him through the kiss, tugging and pushing and pulling without any care, aiming to hurt. His nails and teeth are weapons and Kai's skin and lips are vulnerable under them.

But Kai's just as ruthless.

The kiss is rough and bruising, a brawl more than anything else, but Tyson can't begin to describe how satiating it feels. In a classic fight he loses every time and that brief joy he gets from landing a hit or two is smothered by the insurmountable frustration that comes with losing. But this way, this way, he thinks as Kai brings Tyson's hand down from his hair, down his torso and guides it to the front of his jeans. To the hardness there.

This way he wins so many times, in so many ways.

The feeling against his palm makes him lose his mind a bit. The molten lust in Kai's gaze dizzying. They've stopped kissing. Frozen by what Kai just did. That wasn't an entirely conscious action. More of an impulsive one. A practised move.

Something that he usually does with his other partners when in this position. Yet it was Tyson's hand that he grabbed this time and he's waiting to see what he would do.

He presses, harder, palm against crotch. He sees Kai's eyes shutter then open again. Fighting to stay composed against the pleasure he feels.

Tyson pushes up onto his elbows and guides Kai back into a sitting position on the loveseat, climbing on top of him, straddling his legs.

It's so much worse like this. They can see each other very clearly. They can think clearly.

He's sitting on top of Kai. He feels crazy. Kai's eyes linger on him. Eyes that Tyson hates but are currently driving him to the brink of his sanity as they wait in anticipation.

He touches him. Palms his cock through the rough fabric and he can't help but think: he feels good. He fits in his palm in a really satisfying way.

And: he's big after all. Son of a bitch.

He has a one track mind. He can't think of anything else right now except how he needs to feel him in his hand.

Needs it skin to skin.

Needs to see Kai's reaction to it. See if he can make him fall apart in his hands.

He's never seen that side of him after all.

He pulls his belt through the hoops and thinks about how attractive even his belt is. How it sits on his hips. He undoes it, then the button and the zipper. Kai's gaze is on him. Watching him. Making his face burn hot. His hands rest idly, comfortably, like he has every right to touch them, on Tyson's knees.

He holds his breath and raises his eyes to Kai's, looking at him through his lashes as he slides his hand past the waistband of his underwear and wraps a hand around him. His heart is in his throat, thrashing like a butterfly, ready to leap out and embarrass him.

Kai inhales deeply through his nose, chest expanding, gaze setting Tyson's skin aflame, as he gulps involuntarily. The muscles in his neck and jaw straining as he attempts to stay in control.

Tyson frowns slightly, lips parted as he pulls his cock out of his underwear, observing Kai closely as he pumps him once. He does it nonchalantly. Like he's a pro. But he's freaking out on the inside.

He doesn't even know what he's doing.

His thigh flexes under Tyson. A bead of precum forming on his pretty dick. His body responding eagerly unlike the rest of him. He's pretty. Beautiful and proportionate everywhere. God is unfair.

Tyson touches him the way he touches himself because that's what he knows. He tries to pleasure him as best as he can and Kai's composure slips stroke by stroke. His hand slides from Tyson's knee to his thigh, to his ass. Squeezes him there. Kissing his lips and thrusting into his hand. His breath flutters hotly against Tyson's cheeks, like the wings of a small bird.

Tyson's mouth falls open at the same time Kai's does, as the heat builds to a breaking point and they're just breathing into each other's lungs instead of kissing. Unable to focus on anything but the motion of Tyson's fingers along Kai's cock.

When he comes Tyson's mind breaks a little. With the knowledge that he made Kai come. Made him unravel. Just with his hands and his lips. One hand. Kai shudders against Tyson, breath hitching, a barely audible broken noise that sounds like his name leaving his throat, eyes shut, a frown on his forehead where it rests against Tyson's.

Goosebumps litter Tyson's skin as Kai stays there for a moment, breathing hard. Exhales that make Tyson shiver because he's so close. So close to letting go and ruining his pants. A few more brushes of his breath against his skin and he might just come because that's how gone he is but somehow he doesn't care. He can't remember a time sex felt this good. Can't remember a time when his mind went so blank he forgot where he was, what he was doing, moving on pure desire. Can't remember a time when he was touching someone else and it almost made him jizz his pants.

Kai's fingers wrap around him. Those long, tan, tatted fingers of his with visible veins running down the back of his hand. His grip is firm, palms calloused, every bit a man yet Tyson's so turned on he comes apart in less than five strokes. He tries not to make any embarrassing noises but he suspects something may have slipped out. He can't remember.

He whites out. Feels the fabric of the time-space continuum shift irreversibly. Or may be that's just his life because he opens his eyes as a different man. A changed person. He meets Kai's gaze and feels a bit better because he looks like his time-space continuum was kind of irrevocably altered too.

His hair is a mess.

Tyson did that.

His shirt looks like it was torn apart by an animal.

An animal named Tyson.

There's jizz on his pants. Tyson's match. The rest of him must match too.

"Do-" he tries to speak and his voice is scratchy. He clears his throat and asks again awkwardly, "Do you have any clothes I can change into?"