The Seed

He rarely looks at her these days. Sure, his eyes do fall upon her when they're all hanging out together but they don't really see her. Not like they used to. Which is why it's a bit of a shock when piercing blue eyes settle on her all of a sudden, sharp and clear.

Julia sits up straighter without even realizing it. The other guys were just leaving for their classes. Both Julia and Tala have a free next hour. She thought he'd trudge off somewhere on his own, go find a girl to distract himself with like he's been doing this entire semester but he stays today. Observing her. Like he's got a lot of words to say to her.

Spit it out, then, she thinks.

He's leaning against a tree. An unlit cigarette held between his fingers that hang near his hips.

Julia braces herself for him to just say it. Not like he has a filter. Whatever he has to say comes spilling out of him without needing any coaxing or encouragement. He has enough to keep inside of him that he doesn't bother holding back words. Never mind the damage they cause to the people around him.

He's silent for a long time, then a small smirk pulls at his mouth as he says, "You changed your hair." Flicks an end of the cigarette with his thumb. "I like it."

It's not what she was expecting. Her brows rise in response as she replies, "Thanks."

Are they going to have a civil conversation today? No screaming match?

He doesn't seem to be in a particularly good mood or anything. But there is a calmness to him. Not fidgeting as much. Not high. Pupils normal sized.

"You still seeing that Jonouchin guy?" he asks, and his tone is flippant. He runs his tongue over his upper teeth immediately afterwards. Like he's just waiting for an excuse to bite and tear into things. Into her.

"Jonouchi" Julia corrects him, rolling her eyes. He's so immature, making fun of people's names. "Where's this coming from?"

"He was hanging around the AS lecture hall in the morning. Waiting for you. The poor fucker had no idea you were skipping for an hour of extra beauty sleep."

She wasn't getting more beauty sleep. She'd went to bed after drinking late last night and woke up with a raging hangover. There was no option but to skip. Not like she could have concentrated in class.

Jonouchi's just a guy Julia hooked up with at a party last month. She'd been horny and lonely and Yuriy had pissed her the fuck off that night. They've seen each other a few times since and it's clear that he cares a lot more about her than she does about him. She wants something casual and he seemed to want the same too, at least at first. But guys have a tendency to fall in love with her.

If only her charm ever worked on the one person she has wanted since she was fifteen. Once upon a time, she used to be able to make Yuriy laugh so hard he would wheeze for breath and fall off chairs. Those days feel like forever ago.

She needs to call it off with Jonouchi. It's not fair to him anymore.

"Shit" she says, guiltily, pulling out her phone and looking through her texts. Yup, she has ten unread texts from him.

Jesus.

Julia hears Tala chuckling with amusement. "He puts so much product in his hair he's going to be bald by twenty five."

"Well good thing I'm not planning to see him for that long."

"What are you keeping him around for now? His sparkling personality? The guy's more boring than a piece of rock. And his dick game can't be all that good either 'cause you're still going around throwing hissy fits over every minor inconvenience."

Her temple gives a dull throb of annoyance.

She used to think he acted this way over the guys she dates because he was jealous. She used to be so naïve. But then he'd gone and tried to set her up with one of his friends that he approved of and come to the cold realisation that Yuriy wasn't jealous she was dating someone other than him. He just doesn't think she's picking the right people. Apparently he knows what's best for her. Julia stopped taking his opinions about her hookups seriously as soon as she figured out what his problem was. She would be damned before she listened to such misogynistic bullshit.

Julia's preparing a scathing retort to his comment about her throwing 'hissy fits' (because if anyone is a master at throwing tantrums it's Tala) when a loud guffaw draws both of their attention towards a bench nearby where Tyson and his friend Hilary are losing their minds over something. It calms her down instantly. Taking the fighting out of her and making her mourn for her own friendship.

That used to be her and Yuriy.

"Granger doesn't get his shit kicked in enough," Tala mutters, annoyed.

"Leave him alone," Julia drawls irritatedly. Granger did nothing. She doesn't want Tala taking out his frustration on Tyson. She's realizing that she's been saying it literally every time one of the guys speak Tyson's name.

God, that boy needs to be freed from her friends. They can be such hooligans sometimes.

Tala scoffs. "Urgh, you're boring me, Fernandez." He rises to his full height and stuffs the unused cigarette into one of his pant pockets, and saunters past her. Leaving already, not even sticking around long enough to find out the answer to the question he'd asked her.

Does he hate her? Why can't he stand spending any time with her?

"Sorry I'm not interesting enough for you," Julia calls bitterly over her shoulder, watching him go.

Yuriy doesn't look back, giving her the middle finger.

He can't wait to talk to Hilary. He's been itching to tell her about everything. Well, not about Kai of course but the rest of it. The guy thing. The Trent thing. And also about all the stuff he's discovered online and wants to share with her so badly.

His heart gives a small leap of joy when he sees her sitting at a table in the library. "Hils," he says to get her attention.

She looks up from her books and grins wide. "Hi, how did the test go?"

"I'll pass" He slides into the chair next to her and pulls out a textbook, intending to both talk to his friend and get some work done. He's so behind he can't waste any more free time. Plus he never has any trouble concentrating around Hilary. She doesn't take up any head space, unlike Kai who sucks all the air out of the room and makes it pretty much impossible to breathe let alone study.

Kai. He's giving Tyson new experiences. He never understood the phrase "sucks all the air out of the room" till he met Kai. Never knew anyone could make you feel that way till he actually felt it.

He's teaching him a lot of other stuff too. Stuff about life. About himself. Not purposely obviously. But Tyson's learning. Like how he can have casual sex with someone he doesn't even like and not feel…any positive emotion towards that person afterwards at all.

Don't fall in love, he'd chanted to himself in his head as he had entered that hotel room. Don't catch feelings. Don't be an idiot.

He wants to laugh now thinking about it. How could he have had so little faith in himself and overestimated Kai so heavily like that?

Tyson had attempted to suppress his reactions, stop himself from feeling, almost ruining the whole thing in the process but it didn't happen. He ended up letting go towards the end, unable to control it. He's not a pro to have a mouth on his cock and not lose himself in it. He hasn't gotten a lot of blow jobs in his life for him to deliberately smother his responses. He couldn't even think. His brain hadn't even been working for him to be doing all of that.

It had flatlined simply at the suggestion of it. And then he saw Kai dropping to his knees and that was that. Tyson could not not give in to the monster in him that wanted to do foul things to his mortal enemy. (There's probably some psychological reason behind it but he can't be bothered with it right now.)

The good news is - something that brought him immense relief - is that when he'd looked down at Kai after it was over he hadn't thought that Kai was any less of a dipshit. He still wanted to punch the fuck out of his face no matter how good it had looked swallowing his cock.

So he's in high spirits today. He's in a terrific mood. Amazing sex. No strings attached. No threat of heartbreak. He can get off and not worry about hurting someone or being hurt in return. He really cannot have asked for a better arrangement.

They chat about their respective days for a while then silently do their work for another half hour. Then Tyson needs a little break and unwraps the lollipop Hilary had given him, sticking it into his mouth with the memory of sucking on something else much less sweeter but way hotter playing in his mind.

He turns a little towards Hilary and nudges her shoulder. "So," he says waiting till she looks at him. "I have something to tell you."

"You and Julia are going out," she guesses with wide eyes.

"What?" he exclaims in surprise. "No" he says, snorting.

"Then what?"

"No, it's something else," he says a bit shyly, biding for time. Wondering how to phrase his sentence.

Hilary raises a brown eyebrow at him.

"Okay" he lets out a breath and looks into his best friend's eyes. There's no way he could ever not trust them. It's his home. Right there. In her eyes. "Remember that guy Trent?"

She screws up her face, trying to remember whom exactly he's talking about. "That American from Date university you introduced to me at The Shack?"

"Yeah"

"What about him?"

"Well," he looks into her familiar gaze and says, "I think he's kind of cute."

There's a moment. Of confusion. A tick in her brow. Like an almost frown, then it clears, her eyes widening just the slightest bit for the slightest moment as understanding dawns upon her, her shoulders freezing before all of her relaxes and her features twist into a sly expression. "Swinging for both teams, Granger? I knew your greed knew no bounds."

He bursts out laughing, a coil in his gut he didn't know had been there unfurling. "My greed?" he wheezes.

"Girls just weren't enough for you, were they?" She smacks his thigh. "You want them all!"

Tyson clutches his stomach. "You're making it sound like I want everyone."

"Don't you?!" she teases.

He laughs harder, and Hilary joins in too. They are uncontrollable for a few minutes till the librarian stomps over and threatens to throw them both out.

"Oh my god" Tyson settles back in his chair, collecting himself, wiping a tear from his eye, shoulders still shaking with the tremors of leftover giggles.

"So this Trent guy," says Hilary suggestively, fully turning in her chair to face him and wagging her eyebrows. "You got a crush on him?"

He suppresses another laugh not wanting to be banned from the library, pursing his lips. "Yeah I think I do," he says softly after giving it a bit of thought.

Her eyes twinkle with excitement. Especially since Tyson hadn't shown interest in anyone since his break up with Mariah. "Well, he's not a bad pick," she says, tucking her hair behind her ear. "He's really hot. How long have you liked him?"

"Um…pretty recently," he tells her, clearing his throat, blushing a little. "I didn't even know I was into…guys till like last week. And he's been texting and calling like every other day since we hung out together off campus a few weeks back. Remember that time you ditched us?"

"Oh come on. You know I couldn't make it on time. My hair was a disaster that morning. Remind me to never use a curler again."

He reaches out to touch her hair which lies straight over her shoulder.

"Was he your…" she leans forward to whisper, "gay awakening?"

No. It was Kai. But Trent helped too. So it's not a complete lie when he says, "Yeah"

Hilary snorts, gazing at him fondly.

"I think he likes you too," she says thoughtfully.

"Really?" This is news to him because he never gave any signs but it's not like Tyson's giving any overt signals either. "I've no idea if he even…" he trails off. "You know"

She shakes her head. "When I met him at the Shack he seemed really excited to see you. He said, if I'm recalling this correctly, he said that he was hoping he would bump into you. You'd only met him once before right? And he was hoping he could get to see you again when he came to our uni to meet his friend. I don't know that sounds a bit like he's interested."

"To be my friend," he says, being pessimistic.

"You never know, Tyson" Hilary says sagely. "Don't squander the opportunity thinking you have no chance."

"May be he's just a super nice guy."

"No, no, no one is that nice. We're literally friends with Max, the nicest guy on this whole planet, and he doesn't do stuff like that. I'm telling you, you have more chances than you think."

He considers that. Thinks about just going for it.

"Well I've been kinda sorta flirting with him," he tells her.

Hilary gives him a proud smile. "That's my boy."

He sits against a barrel of paint up on the roof of one of the uni buildings, waiting for the clock to strike twelve in Chile so he can call his dad and wish him a happy birthday.

There's around fifteen minutes left. He came up early so he could…prepare himself.

When his dad picks up his voice is all scratchy, kind of like how his own gets in the morning but deeper. He'd woken him up. "Hey, dad," he says, slightly nervous.

"Tyson? What's up, son?" he hears concern in his voice and smiles to himself. His dad doesn't remember.

"Happy birthday!" he wishes him before he gets anymore worked up.

"Oh, ha ha!" he bursts into laughter, relief threaded into his reverberating chuckles. The sound of it makes Tyson's eyes well up without warning.

There's an ocean of love in his heart for his dad and he gets so very few opportunities to show it. He spends the next twenty minutes catching up with his father, tears of joy moistening his eyes along with the happiest laughter.

"Hey, man," Rei joins him on the roof a while later, not long after he's done talking to his dad. Tyson's eyes bug out when he sees him pull out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Hey, Rei?" he calls, mind still reeling at the sight of his friend nudging a Marlboro into his palm. He doesn't look all that experienced with it. Doesn't handle it the way the Blitzkriegs do but he's not so hopeless with it that he looks like he hasn't done it before.

"Yeah?" he answers, standing close to the ledge, looking at the horizon as he lights up.

"Since when do you smoke?" asks Tyson, shooting Rei a funny look.

"Oh" he inhales once with the cigarette between his lips and then takes it out, exhaling with ease. He looks so cool but not like the Rei he knows. Tyson wonders if his Rei has been kidnapped by the aliens. "Started a couple of weeks ago," he says shrugging.

"Have you been doing it a lot?" he asks, checking to see if he should intervene or not, but he doesn't think so.

"Not a lot," says Rei, his voice flat. "You know me."

"Yeah" Tyson finally stands up, approaching his friend who's a stickler for rules and takes care of his health. "I know you. So what's going on?"

He shoves his hands into his pockets to protect himself against the chill and waits for Rei to speak.

There's a troubled look on his face, a mix of emotions. Tyson frowns lightly when he sees guilt on his features. Where's that coming from?

Rei shakes his head at himself and takes another drag of his cigarette, closing his eyes and breathing the smoke out. "I'm so selfish."

"How are you selfish?" asks Tyson, his whole body facing Rei.

"I knew you'd be up here. Hilary said you were skipping lunch to call your dad and you always come to the roof to call him on his birthday." He inhales again and when he lets it out he says, "I'm a selfish prick 'cause I'm meeting my girlfriend's parents tonight and I'm nervous and I want you to make me feel better about it even though I know she's your ex and you hate talking about her."

"I don't-" Tyson stumbles. Wow, that's a lot. He scratches at his brow. "Rei, I don't mind talking about Mariah. You don't need to feel bad about coming to me just because I used to date her too. It's fine."

"Don't lie, Ty," he says in a whisper, still not meeting his eyes.

"Oh okay," he flattens his bangs against his forehead, sensing that complete honesty is what Rei needs from right now. "I-it's a little awkward when you bring it up, I admit, but I don't hate it. Rei," he touches his friend's shoulder so he would look at him. He does. "I don't hate it. I don't mind being your friend. I don't mind talking with you about your relationship. I promise." He hopes he knows he's being sincere. "And you're not selfish," he says more light-heartedly, giving him a soft punch. "Or a prick. Believe me I know enough selfish pricks to know that you aren't one."

Rei finally cracks a smile. A watery half-smile and a snort. "Okay" he says.

"Okay" repeats Tyson. "So you're meeting her parents today?"

"Yeah"

"What are you wearing?"

"God, I don't know," he buries his hands in his hair and tugs on the locks, the cigarette coming dangerously close to burning them. But he doesn't catch on fire. He releases the locks and heaves a sigh. "Slacks? I don't know".

"Just be yourself. Rei, you're fucking great. Really fucking great," he says again when he looks at him unsurely. Rei's literally the greatest person ever. Calm and sturdy as a rock, honest, reliable, and full of so many talents that Tyson's stopped trying to count them. "They'll love you. Just like the rest of us mere mortals."

Rei finally flashes him a real smile, a teasing light coming back to his eyes. "You love me? Don't let Hilary hear you saying that."

Tyson laughs out loud.

"She's been complaining to me about how you spend all your free time hanging out with Julia Fernandez these days. She's already afraid you're replacing her, and if she hears about this..."

"What? Really?" he asks surprised. She's made a few comments stating her displeasure about his friendship with Julia before but he had no idea she's been talking to Rei about it.

"Yup"

"Oh my god. Well, don't tell her." He knocks his shin with his boot.

"I won't," he's beaming now, playful like his usual self again. "Your secret's safe with me." The cigarette on the ledge, forgotten between his fingers. "So slacks?"

"No slacks. Just wear your best clothes."

"A suit?"

"Not a suit! Is there nothing- Come on, show me your wardrobe."

"Fine"

"What are we doing for Hilary's birthday?" Emily asks, resting her chin on Tyson's knee, gazing out the window he's sitting next to. "It's next week."

"I know, I haven't forgotten." He pulls out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, straightening it out. "I have a whole list here."

"Whoa, what's that? Give it here." She hops on the ledge next to him as he moves his feet to make space for her. She goes through the list and frowns heavily, "Bungee jumping? Seriously, Granger?"

"Hey, she's wanted to do it since we were 12!" He tries to take the paper back from her but she swats him away.

"Does she still want to do it?" Emily casts him a disbelieving look.

"Believe me, I know her," he says confidently. "She'd love to go bungee jumping with me."

"What is it with you two finding fun in risking your lives?"

"We're not risking our lives. I thought you trusted science, Watson."

"I trust science. Not people."

He grins at her. "It's safe"

"It isn't" She gives him an admonishing look, reminding him of her mother Jude. He's met her once and has seen the infamous Jude glare in all its glory. She's literally Emily thirty years from now. "Can you do something a little less dangerous? Something we can all participate in? Like a party?"

"Oh we're already throwing a party. That's confirmed and it's going to be a big one."

"Where are we doing it?"

"How about a club? Book a whole floor. I've saved some money for it. It's her 20th birthday. We gotta make it memorable."

She tilts her head, her brilliant mind working. "Time's a little…but I think we can make it work. We could all pitch in."

"Yes"

"You, me, Kenny, Max, Rei…"

"Mike, Rick, Eddie," he supplies. "They'd be up for it."

"Of course" She brainstorms some more and suddenly straightens up, clamping a hand on his leg. "Let's throw her the biggest party ever."

"The biggest?"

"Bigger than any the Blitzkriegs have ever thrown." Her eyes have a fire in them. "Kai broke her heart. It's only fair we steal some of the spotlight from him and give it to her."

"You're right…" He's seeing the picture she's painting. It's revenge in a certain manner. He smirks at her deviously. "Watson, I like the way your mind works."

"Thanks, Granger, now let's get started. If we're going to outdo the Blitzkriegs then we have our work cut out for us."