All I could do was hold him.

And I did.

My arms were tightly wrapped around his waist and my bare chest was pushed against Kai's back, my head buried in the crook of his neck.

He wasn't crying anymore. Now was the moment of calm after the storm. The moment of peacefulness as the exhaustion sets in.

Kai faced my wall with the blue light of my LEDs dimly lighting his features.

The house was quiet and all that could be heard was the soft breathing of the boy in my arms.

I was beginning to think he had fallen asleep until he spoke up. With a croaky voice, "He was never arrested, my dad. He completely disappeared off the grid and the cops couldn't find him. But even if they did, the most he would get is domestic violence."

"Y'know, I don't fight at Mad Dog just for the money," He continued.

"Really?" I asked.

"Since I've already told you so much I may as well just explain everything. But yeah. There's someone I need to find, and I can only get to him if I rise to the very top of the ranks."

I was surprised, I had just assumed he was in it for the money, I mean Kai made 500K from winning One-on-One. Out of thousands of people, Kai won 1st place. He won 15 rounds straight without losing a single match and the money just kept accumulating with every win, and the prize for winning increased each round. And that's not even including all the bet money he gets a cut of.

"The person that owns Mad Dog, Song Byungjoon, is actually my dad's old best friend from before... you know. They were friends even back in Korea and ended up both moving from Korea to America around the same."

I quietly replied, not wanting to break the calm atmosphere, "Why do you want to find him?"

I could feel Kai stiffen a bit, his hands balled into fists and his jaw was clenched, "Revenge. I want revenge on that motherfucker. For everything he did to my family... and what he did to me."

"But how is your dad's old friend going to help with that?" I asked.

"I can't be certain, but if there is anyone in the world who knows where my dad is, it'd be him." I could feel the determination in his voice.

"So... revenge." That's a dark path to take, but considering what Kai's dad did and Kai's personality, his decision to take revenge is not surprising.

Kai rolled over so he was now facing me, his head resting on my arm and his yellow-hazel eyes and pink, plump lips only inches from mine.

No Lucas. Bad. This is not the time, we are having an extremely serious conversation.

"Hmmm... where should I even start?" Kai thought out loud.

"Well," he began, "You know how I use a fight name at Mad Dog, right?"

"Yeah, it was Fury right? Sounds pretty dope."

"Yeah it sounds cool, but I actually picked it for the meaning. It's pronounced Fury, but it's spelled f-u-r-i-a-e. They're the Roman goddesses of vengeance and retribution against crimes like homicide and unfilial conduct."

"Oh..." That makes sense. "So you go by a name that fits your situation literally perfectly."

Kai laughed, "Yes dumbass, that's why I picked it in the first place." There was a small smile on his face.

We stared into each other's eyes, I can't get enough of how beautiful this boy is. Neither of us said another word, We just laid there in silence, studying each other's faces. Who would've guessed that the guy I've fought with for the past three years while simultaneously having a crush on him would be lying in my bed?

Unfortunately, I had to break the silence as there was a burning question in my head, "Earlier you said that you could only talk to your dad's friends if your rank topped right?"

"Yeah."

"You won first in One-on-One so does that mean you'll get to talk to him?" I asked, unsure of how the hierarchy at Mad Dog works.

I knew that Kai would know since he's been fighting there since he was just 14. "I put in a request already, so hopefully it'll somehow make its way to his desk."

"And if it does? What happens when you do find your dad? I don't mean to trample on your plans for revenge but killing him will only ruin your life even more." I frowned, Kai could seriously fuck up his life and his future if he didn't do this the right way.

"Geez, don't get your panties in a twist. I'm not gonna kill the man."

I sighed in relief.

"Killing him is too easy. He needs to suffer the way he made me and my brother suffer. Murder would just give him an easy way out."

I gulped. Yep, that's the sadistic Kai I know. "So... what does that mean?"

"I have everything I need. I have the hospital records from every time I had to go, I was able to track down some of my neighbors and a couple agreed to testify, and then there's the body of my dead brother that's still in my old backyard..."

"What if your dad went back and moved it?"

"No, he didn't, someone would have seen or heard him."

I wasn't sure how Kai could be so certain, but I think it would be better to be optimistic. "So you're going to go the legal route?" That was slightly surprising. I assumed it would have been more, I don't know, illegal since Kai literally makes a living illegally fighting.

"Hey!" he shouted, propping himself up on one arm and looking down at me, "I'm not going to risk spending the rest of my life in jail when he's the one who should rot in hell. Plus, they don't treat child abusers very well in prison. I'll just let them do the dirty work and give my dad what he deserves."

"Damn, you've really thought this out."

"Well yeah, I've been planning how to get back at him since I was in middle school." I'm so lucky, not only is he hot but he's smart and thinks about the future too.

Yikes, maybe that's not the kind of thought I should be having, this topic is kind of dark. It's just because I like him, I'm not ignoring his problems or anything, I swear.

My eyes softened as I looked at him. I couldn't help but smile which made him smile back, "What?" He questioned.

"Nothing," I paused, "It's just, have I ever told you how frickin beautiful you are?"

"Hmm," Kai pretended to think, looking up towards my ceiling, "I think you may have mentioned it before. Something about how my body is so alluring that no matter what I do I'll turn you on," He smirked, "even if I'm, I don't know, beating you up." He cocked an eyebrow at me.

Damn this boy was trying to get a rise out of me. And it was working too.

I scoffed, "That's not fair. You're never going to let me live this down are you?"

"Nope," Kai said, popping the p'.

"Hey hey hey, don't pout," Kai was now laughing at me. "It's your fault for telling me something like that in the first place."

"Well, I'm sorry for confessing my feelings." Not going to lie, it kinda hurt.

Kai sensing my mood leaned down a bit and whispered in my ear, "Don't be sad. As much as it's funny, it's equally just as hot."

He then quickly moved away from my face, leaving me with a stunned expression. Was he trying to turn me on? Because it was working.

Kai shrugged his shoulders, "I don't kink shame." That snarky little bastard.

I didn't reply. I just looked at his lips.

Noticing the direction of my eyes, Kai licked his bottom lip, slowly taking it between his teeth and biting.

I reached out my hand, stroking his hair and the side of his face.

I slowly began to lean forward. Kai was looking at my lips and I was looking at his. I could feel his breath on my face.

I went in for a kiss, but just as our lips were about to connect Kai ducked to the side and turned around.

He started laughing hysterically, "Y-you," he wheezed, "you should have seen your face!" he was practically rolling around. "You totally thought you were about to get some didn't you?"

I was dumbfounded. My mouth was hanging open, I couldn't believe he just did that. "You're playing with me? Me? Of all people?"

"Yeah, you have the best reactions!"

"But you should know by now what happens when you mess with me. When have I ever just taken shit from you?"

"Oh boohoo, what are you gonna do? Hit me?" Why won't he stop laughing?

"Hit you? No, no. I need to be a little bit more creative than that don't you think?" I could feel the smirk on my face. He was so going to get it.

Before Kai could respond I sprung up and began tickling Kai all over his body.

"St-stop! Ah-ha no, th-that t-tickles agh," He was squirming around, his words sounded breathless as I'm sure it was hard for him to breathe.

"Wait, it ti-tickles too m-much!" the boy wheezed. His arms were flying around, frantically trying to get me to stop.

He managed to catch both of my hands in his own. He held them against his chest as he caught his breath.

It took him a minute but even once his breathing was back to normal he still didn't let go of my hands.

"Are you going to let go?" I asked.

"No." He smiled and then cuddled into my chest, holding my hands in his. "I'm tired." His voice was quiet and soft. Looks like he's used up all of his energy, it has been a bit of a rough day for him.

"Okay, go to sleep." I hushed, sensing Kai was already drifting off.

As his grip loosened I carefully removed one of my hands and gently brushed my fingers through his hair. He let out a content sigh and a small smile made its way onto his face.

It seems like tonight Kai's going to sleep peacefully with no nightmares.

-----

"MOOOOMMM!!! LUCAS IS SLEEPING WITH SOMEONE IN HIS BED!!!"

The screaming startled me awake, causing me and Kai to both jolt up.

Rubbing his eyes Kai exclaimed, "What the fuck? It's so loud." He was still half asleep, his eyes still closed.

While he was still processing what was happening I was wide-eyed, staring directly into the eyes of my 12-year-old sister, Alice.

In a panic I shook my head, bringing a finger to my mouth motioning for her to be quiet.

"MOOOOMMMM, LUCAS DOESN'T HAVE A SHIRT ON!" The little demon tattled to my mom. Her words are implying that more things happened than what actually happened. I didn't even get lucky, me not having a shirt on was just because I didn't get a chance when Kai broke down yesterday.

I quickly moved my hands to cover my chest, remembering that I was indeed half-naked.

I could hear my mom's footsteps quickly approaching my door.

Kai was now fully awake and looked just as panicked as I did. He turned his head to me, "Shit! Didn't you say you weren't out yet??"

"Yeah..."

Now my mom was also shouting, "LUCAS? I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NO ONE WAS ALOUD OVER WHEN WE ARE GONE-" She paused mid-sentence as she looked directly at Kai.

Suddenly very calm, my mom let out an "Oh?" she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "It's just a boy?"

I facepalmed. This was not how I imagined having to come out to my family. "Mom, this is Kai. Kai, that's my mom. The tall one with curly hair is my sister, Alice. And the blonde one is my other sister, Tallie. And then there's my brother, Kalen."

Kai awkwardly waved at my entire family, my mom and Alice standing in the doorway while my youngest sister and one of the twins peeked their heads in from outside the room. "Hi."

"Hello, um, sweetheart," She was talking to Kai, "Sorry, you had to see me yelling. I thought Lucas had brought some girl over and you know what happens when a girl and a boy spend the night together alone." She made some strange hand motions in an attempt to get her point across.

Kai choked on nothing, coughing at my mom's comment.

"Mom are you dense?" Kalen chimed in, glaring at her.

"Hey! don't you speak to me like that."

Kalen just rolled his eyes, "It's so obvious though? Are you telling me you can't see what happened here?"

He was pretty quick-witted for a 15-year-old kid.

"What are you talking about?" My mom sternly questioned him.

I sighed rubbing the back of my neck with my hand, "Mom, I'm gay."

She was silent. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers and she just stared at me.

"Oh? Oh. Ohhhhh. Um, okay." She slowly turned around, the stiffness in her movement reminded me of a robot.

"Okay? That's it?" I mumbled.

Kai was looking down, fiddling with the sheets.

My mom suddenly turned around, "Um, when you two are ready, come out to the kitchen, I made some breakfast." She tried to smile at us, but it came off as more like the uncomfortable facial gesture people give to strangers when they pass them in the street. You know, that awkward tight-lipped smile.

"Okay. We'll be down in a bit." I replied.

My doorway was soon cleared and Kai and I were left alone with the door still open.

"Well that just happened," Kai spoke first.

"Yeah, when they visit my aunt they usually don't come back until the late afternoon. I thought I'd have more time."

"Your mom seemed pretty shocked."

"We've never even brought up anything about the LGBTQ community or homosexual relationships in this house so she didn't even have any hints that point toward me being gay." I rubbed my eyes, a headache already starting to set in, "When my mom hears gay she probably thinks of stereotypical flamboyant and feminine guys. But I'm not like that so..."

"So should we get breakfast now? Or do you want me to leave first so that you can talk to your mom?" Kai asked me.

"No, stay." I knew he was being considerate but I'd rather not be by myself, I'm not sure how my mom is going to respond.

"Okay. I'll stay. But just know, I have no clue how to talk to parents and I've only ever come out to one person besides you and I didn't even come out to him. He figured it out himself. So don't expect me to not be awkward."

"That's fine. It'd just be nice to have you there with me." I moved to grab a dark green t-shirt that was lying on my floor.

Was it clean? We'll never know.

As I pulled the shirt over my head, "Wait, who else knows? Is it Jack?" I asked. Jack seems like the intuitive type.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"Just a feeling," I responded. "But how did he figure it out?" I furrowed my eyebrows trying to think of how Kai could have given off gay vibes, even me, a gay person, thought he was completely straight. Like seriously, there was nothing there to even hint at an attraction towards the same gender.

I looked up at Kai, his face turning red? He was blushing?

"After we had sex, you know how you gave me hemorrhoid cream at school? Well, apparently he saw it in the trash can and pieced it together from there."

I let out a strange snorting noise in an attempt to hold back my laughter, "S-so you were outed b-because you had hemorrhoids??" I couldn't help myself and burst into laughter, doubling over.

Kai hit me on the back, "Hey! It's not funny! And it was your fault too." He was pouting and his face was bright red, so adorable. I can't believe someone as badass as Kai has such a cute side to him.

"Right, sorry about that. But you certainly weren't complaining when you were in bed." I smirked at him, he's so easy to rile up, not that I'm one to talk.

"Oh fuck off will you." Kai smacked the back of my head as he made his way out of my room.

"Ouch."

-----

I walked into the kitchen with Kai right behind me, both of us extremely tense.

I sat down in my normal spot and Kai slipped onto the chair to my left. My mom was directly across from us.

I moved to grab some pancakes and placed them on Kai's plate. Also scooping some strawberries and cantaloupe and placing them on his plate.

Kalen coughed "whipped."

I turned and glared at him and then gave myself food as well.

The table was quiet and no one was talking. My siblings were already eating so I picked up my fork and was about to take a bite when my mom stated, "So you're gay." I dropped my fork and it made a loud clunk on my plate.

All eyes were on me.

"Y-yeah." I stuttered.

"And you didn't feel the need to share something so important with your own mother?" She questioned.

"I-I just didn't think it mattered... at the time..." I trailed off. Seeing the look on my mom's face told me my answer wasn't good enough.

"And so what? You just weren't going to tell me you were seeing someone?"

Now it was Kai's turn to drop his fork.

I knew the quickest way to end the scolding was to apologize so I muttered a quiet, "Sorry. I should have told you." I knew Kai and I weren't dating but there would be no convincing my mom otherwise after she saw us together in bed this morning.

"Mhmm, that's what I thought." She spoke contently, moving to cut her pancakes.

I was looking around the table to gauge everyone's reaction and noticed Kalen had this big, demonic smile on his face.

He jutted his hand out right in front of Alice's face, "Pay up bitch."

"Language!" My mother yelled.

"Hmff, no fair." Alice reached into her pocket and took out a $20 bill and placed it into Kalen's palm.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"We made a bet about two years ago. I said you were gay and Alice said you were straight." Kalen pocketed the money.

I was baffled, "You were betting on my sexuality??"

"It's really unfair! I was ten, I barely even knew what it meant for someone to be gay." Alice sulked.

"Sucks to suck." Kalen laughed.

"How did you know though?" I asked. I knew he was intuitive, similar to Jack, but I thought I hid it really well.

"Are you dumb too? Try clearing your internet history every now and again and then maybe I wouldn't find all the gay porn you were watching."

"Hey!" My mom shouted again, covering Alice and Tallie's ears, "Keep it clean."

"Oh." Oops, my bad.

"Wait, where's Kaleb?" I asked my mom.

"He went to go play basketball with some friends, he'll probably eat breakfast at one of their houses." She stated.

Kai turned to me, "Is that your other brother?"

"Yeah, Kaleb is Kalen's twin."

"Ohhh, I see." Kai nodded his head and then went back to his food.

My mom cleared her throat, "So Kai, how long have you been seeing my son?"

Kai had a mouthful of food and looked like a deer caught in headlights with wide eyes staring at my mom. He quickly tried to swallow the food in his mouth.

"Uhh," He glanced toward me looking for help, both of us knowing we weren't going out yet. Yet, notice how I said yet. "N-not long. Yeah, very recently."

"Hmm, interesting." My mom nodded her head. "So, how did you two meet?" She was looking at Kai expecting him to answer.

"Well um, we go to the same high school, so yeah." Kai kept his answers short. He wasn't kidding when he said he didn't know how to interact with parents.

"Okay. Did you two have a class together?"

"We have some together this year but we did the same, um, after school activity? Yes, we've done the same activity together since freshman year."

"Oh!" My mom was excited all of a sudden. "Do you do boxing too?" Her eyes were sparkling. My dad was a boxer so she has a love for the sport.

"Something similar, I guess," Kai responded.

"How wonderful!" She had a large smile on her face.

I think she's the only mom in the world that can be won over with an extremely violent sport.

"Good, this is good." my mom clasped her hands together with an approving look on her face.