A/N: The characters may be a bit OOC, but well, for the sake of the story, i couldn't get it done any other way, but I'll surely try to keep them in character as much as possible in the next chapters.

Chapter 4

(Acceptance)

The door opened and Kai entered, his face expressionless as he strode over to Mr. Dickenson.

He tried hard to keep his emotions in check, as his former friends stared at him, with, he was sure, the hate he had realized they held in their hearts for him.

Handing the old man a file holder that they now noticed he was carrying, he made to walk back out, but was stopped by the latter.

"Now, Kai, I will find that you didn't try so hard to get back to them just to walk out on them the first opportunity you get," he said gently to the slate-haired boy who had his back turned to him.

He turned around, his face hard, his eyes burning with anger, before he growled out, "You mean them, who hate me so much that they can't bear my fucking existence? They'd rather have me dead. If they don't give a fuck about me, why the fuck do I have to? I mean nothing to them. You heard it loud and clear when they made me realize that." His voice would've seemed normal to someone else, but could feel the despair and betrayal that was laced with it.

Tala stiffened at that, regretting every word that had left his mouth in the spur of a moment.

"Kai, listen to me. That all isn't true," Mr. Dickenson stood up and went over to him, taking a hold of his arm – thankful that he wasn't pushed away – and sat him down.

"But didn't you hea-"

"I know, Kai. I heard everything. But I'm sure Tala wouldn't have meant it," Kai looked up at Tala with his face contorted in anger, frustration, and a tinge of sadness.

Tala, who had been glaring at him for every single moment, now looked at him with regret filled eyes, his face showing nothing but the tormented thoughts brought, of having said all those poisonous words to Kai. His eyes seemed to be asking forgiveness.

Kai was taken aback. He looked at the others, surprisingly, he wasn't met with a glare from Bryan, instead the lilac haired averted his eyes when he looked at him, almost as if he was shy. That would've amused him any other time, now it bothered him. Ian was also looking down at his folded hands. When he looked at the Spencer, he was met with a soft, almost non-existent smile.

His eyes narrowed, turning his towards the old man, he looked suspiciously at him.

"You told them."

"Yes, I did."

Kai's eyes instantly filled with rage, he stood up and glared at him.

"Why the fuck did you?" he hissed at him.

Mr. Dickenson calmly ignored the profanity and smiled softly at Kai.

"Why, my boy, don't you want them to know the truth?" his face was so peaceful Kai felt a sudden urge to punch it. He stopped himself. The fuck was he even thinking.

"Why would I, huh? They already made it clear, didn't they? Why would I want them to know?" he let out, his voice rough. His frame trembling, as he took in what the person sitting in front of them had just done. Unfurled his secrets out to the people to whom he meant nothing.

"Because, Kai, it is for the best," standing up once again, he took up his waistcoat and hat that lay on the armrest of the couch, and bid them farewell.

"Now, I am sure you have a lot of things to discuss, so I'll leave you to it," with that he left the room, leaving them alone.

Kai stood staring at the closed door of the apartment, perplexed, his body still shaking slightly with rage, before he regained his thoughts and sat down heavily, burying his face in his hands.

Tala and the others stared at each other, silently making their joint decision before getting up and going to the couch Kai was sitting on.

He didn't seem to notice them, as he didn't move even when Tala knelt down on his side.

Tala cautiously placed a pale hand on Kai's knee. The other raised his head and noticed the hand, jerking away from it, panicked at the presence of all four of them around him, though his face didn't show it.

Tala noticed the dark circles under his eyes, the unkempt hair, along with the paler than usual skin. Regretfully he remembered that he hadn't noticed it before. He cursed himself, Kai was suffering because of them.

Kai almost regretted shooing from the redhead, and looked at him, shocked to find cerulean blue eyes staring at him, the pain hidden under the layers of uncertainty and shame was completely seeable. He could clearly study the overwhelming amount of emotions the other was reflecting in those crystal orbs.

Were they the same ones he could get lost into when he was younger? The ones that gave him comfort and warmth in the deadly chill of the abbey? The ones he could trust blindly? The ones he seemed to be crazily groping for in the darkness of his forgotten past? The ones that gave him a reason to live?

Were they?

Tala's heart clenched even more as he saw a thin film of tears glistening over the crimson eyes, daring to fall down at the corners. He could notice the slight tremor of Kai's lower lip as he tried to keep everything inside, trying not to show them his weak side. He watched as Kai's breathing got rougher, his hands were shaking. One would say he was having a panic attack.

No, this was no panic attack. This was Kai Hiwatari finally crumbling under the weight of his loneliness, his misery, his meaningless life, his destroyed family, his wrecked mind, his breaking heart. And he was trying so desperately to stop it from doing that.

Tala felt a sharp tug at his chest, he could feel, within every nerve of his body, the pain and the torment the other was going through, and he decided it wasn't too pleasant. In fact, pain never was pleasant.

"Kai…"

The said bluenette finally cave in, a tear making its way down his pale cheek as he leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around Tala, gripping at the cloth there tightly. Tala followed suit and circled one of his arms around his back, while his other hand found its way to the other's scalp, stroking the dark blue hair soothingly.

He didn't know how much desperately he had missed the bluenette until he was finally in his arms. He had suppressed all his emotions behind a cold and icy mask so that his teammates wouldn't be affected by his loss of control over his feelings. He did not want to be weak, he was strong. He was their captain, he had to keep them up, so there was no room for mourning.

Tala had gotten used to hiding behind that almost cruelly hard and emotionless mask, that he had spent years without letting himself feel the pain that Kai's leaving had brought. He had fought with every painfully obvious will to think about the times he had spent with him, that at some point he was afraid he wouldn't even remember anything about the slate haired boy anymore.

Now, though, his fear had been proved wrong. All those emotions he had kept bottled up for years were now flooding back full force, almost making him numb and blind with the sheer intensity of them.

He knew it had been painful for him to pretend to hate the other, but he had done it in order to assure his teammates that he wasn't hurting because of the other anymore, and that they should stop worrying. They themselves had claimed they hated Kai, but he knew at some point that each of them had used the H word for Kai just to convince the others that they were better off without him, and in doing so, also convincing themselves.

Now it was becoming sure that it was impossible to truly hate him, and he was sure the others were also thinking the same.

His own eyes filled with unshed tears that he kept at bay for so long and that finally fell down tracing delicate trails on his soft skin, but wasn't aware of that, he knew his vision was getting blurry, but he didn't know if it was the tears or the headache. He squeezed his eyes shut.

Faintly he noted that Spencer had taken a seat next to Kai, and was now rubbing his back in a calming gesture as the bluenette clung to him.

At least they had each other when things had gotten rough. But, Kai, on the other hand, was all alone against the demons that circled his mind. Confused, lost and incomplete without a past, he had spent all those years with the loneliness eating him up.

It was hard for them to go through what they went through, but in the deepest corners of his mind, Tala had felt a little relief that at least Kai wasn't suffering anymore, which along with it brought the bitter truth that Kai had left them. No, Kai hadn't left them. They had thought he had left them.

"I am so sorry, Kai. So, so sorry," the redhead let out in a cracked voice that sounded quite uncharacteristic of him, but he couldn't care to give a fuck at the moment. Kai tightened his hold on him in response, burying his face in the crook of his neck even more, his body once again spasming as another wave of emotions hit him.

The increasing wetness on his chest both relieved and scared him. He was happy that Kai had at least trusted them enough to let him be seen in such a state, and scared how much Kai had been suffering through trapped in his own mind.

Bryan stood leaning over them, his hands resting on the headrest next to Kai, his eyes holding a softness that he wouldn't ever allow in some other moment of life. He knew they had been harsh towards Kai, even if they hadn't known the truth, it was no place for them to act like that towards him, after all, who wouldn't have wanted to get out of that hellhole. But Kai leaving had in itself brought them the feeling of instant betrayal, and blinded by that, they became ignorant to the fact that Kai, in fact, wouldn't actually anything like that to them.

Even though he would rather take a bullet than admit it, he was feeling much relieved at the turns of events, and daresay, was happy that things had cleared between them. He felt an almost protective, obsessive wave pass through his mind as he saw Kai looking so vulnerable, and he mentally promised himself that he'd kill anyone the most inhumane way if anyone ever hurt the Phoenix again. But, he thought with regret creeping over him, he had to start with himself first, because he had equal participation in all the happenings that had brought Kai to this state that he was shedding tears openly in front of them.

Almost hesitantly, he reached out a hand and put it on Kai's shoulder, taking notice of how Kai's body tensed, his nerves reacting to the touch, before he relaxed and fell limp against Tala who once again held him like his own life depended on it.

He looked to his left to see Ian looking at the two with a forlorn expression, tears falling down his cheeks. He ruffled the snake's violet hair with his other hand, in an attempt to tell him that it was okay.

Ian looked up at him before giving a slight smile.

They turned their attention towards the slate haired boy when they heard an almost soft whimper.

The soft sniffing that Tala could hear earlier slowly ceased. Kai let go of Tala's jacket that he had been almost crumbling in his fists, and leaned back, staring down at his lap, his hands fidgeting as he didn't know what to do. He was feeling quite embarrassed of such a pathetic display of weakness in front of his – what did they even mean to him now – friends? Family? Or just strangers.

No. He didn't know what they meant to him at the moment, but they most definitely were not stranger, they never had been.

A pale almost fragile hand reached and settled on top of his, and he looked up to see Tala staring at him, his eyes shining with hope.

"Kai, will yo-"

"No, I won't," he let out with a gentle but firm sway of his head, his voice showing the after effects of crying, somehow knowing what the other was asking.

The blue eyes in front of him dimmed again, losing that glimmer that would've put a star's grace to shame. Bryan's hand on his shoulder also tensed, and the falcon removed it, looking away at some invisible speck in the air.

He continued after composing himself a little, a little amused at their reactions.

"No, I won't forgive you, because, first, none of what happened was your fault, we all know clearly whose fault it was, so we can stop with the blame game, and secondly, if you still think you are to blame, and want my forgiveness, then you'll have to accept a condition."

Tala raised a red eyebrow, looking with a puzzled face at him, the others also wearing similar expressions.

"You will have to promise me that you will let me take care of you all, which means getting you a nice place to live in, good food, and well, all the other necessities, without stressing about money. Because you know damn well how stinking rich Hiwatari Corps are, and now that it's all gonna be under me anyway, I can use it however I want. So none of you are to worry about jobs or money at all. And don't for a moment think that you would owe me, because I sure as hell am not going to allow that."

They all fell silent, looking at one another occasionally with a questioning glance, before Tala leaned towards him, wrapping his arms around his torso, holding him much tighter than before.

Ian looked at them, a big smirk forming on his lips, before exclaiming, "GROUP HUG!!!!!!"

He shoved himself at them, and the other two also followed the same, and soon they had Kai wrapped inside their warm little self-made nest, holding onto him as if he'd disappear the second they let him go.

Trapped between the almost too tight and suffocating hug, Kai allowed the corners of his mouth to lift a little, a soft yet pleasant smile adorning his features, his expression relaxed as he allowed this sense of comfort wash over him.

At the end, he did find the people he had been searching for all those years, whose faces had been nothing but slight and disoriented smudges of some undone painting, giving him no helpful clue. But he had managed, even with those little clues, to create the whole picture, the masterpiece.

Even more delighting was the fact that, he had been accepted by them, something that he had been afraid of not happening even an hour ago.

Now it seemed that he was on the top of the world.

He was finally where he belonged, among the people he belonged with, he was never giving it away…

Thank you for reading!