Thanks so much for 58K reads, I can't even comprehend that!!!

On another note...

I know this is just a story and there are certain things people may not like, but please don't be mean. I really appreciate when people point out grammar and spelling errors, but sometimes I get comments that make me want to stop writing altogether...

I'm not saying that I can't or won't accept constructive criticism, because that is something I welcome with open arms. I'm just asking for all of you to keep in mind that although this is just a fictional story, there is still a very real person behind the story.

I've actually tried writing on Wattpad several times before, but sometimes it's just too much with my mental health issues so I always ended up dropping whatever story I was writing.

I've dropped this story three times in the past three years... I am trying to get through it and make it emotional, fun, and interesting for everyone. But I am a human too and if I keep getting the same comments I have been the past week I don't know If I'll be able to keep doing this...

but please be considerate.

"Here you go," Zay's dad handed us a small booklet. "This here is the keycode for your apartment. These are the codes to the facilities, and the wifi password as well as the maintenance numbers."

Lucas and I stood outside of our new apartment. Andreas had really outdone himself, the place was ridiculously nice, but it also had a homey feeling to it.

"Thank you so much. It must have been hard to find a place like this in just one week, are you sure you don't want us to pay you? We really don't mind..." I trailed off as Andreas raised his hand dismissively.

"Anything for Zay's friends. It was hard to convince the landlord to let two 17-year-olds lease the place, but I know that Kai is turning 18 soon and I vouched for you so they eventually caved. Anyhow, I'll let you get to unpacking," he smiled as we waved him goodbye.

I glanced down the hallway, truly taking in our new place. It resembled a high-class hotel in certain ways. The walls were coated with a light bluish-grey color and the doors were a deep mahogany brown.

"Shall we?" Lucas asked. I could barely see his face due to the two large boxes stacked in his hands.

I punched in the long number sequences to the black and blue keypad. A small beep rang through my ears as the lock clicked open.

I pushed the door open and ushered Lucas inside, grabbing one of the four boxes we had placed on the floor. We set them down right by the entrance as we both went back outside to take in the rest of our things.

We were both light packers with not a lot of personal belongings, the heaviest things were all things from my old place that I paid for myself such as the plates and utensils as well as my TV. The rest of our stuff was mostly comprised of clothing.

I huffed, softly placing a heavy box on top of two others. Lucas closed the door behind, "Should we take a look around first?"

I turned away from the door to face the kitchen. There was an island counter in the center. The bottom of it had light grey cabinets and a dark grey marble countertop above it. Cabinets lined the walls with the same granite counter underneath them. The dishwasher was placed next to the sink, both looked fancy.

On the far right wall from the kitchen was an open door that looked like an additional bathroom. While I began to open drawers and inspect what was inside the cabinets, Lucas went over to check the bathroom. He briefly peeked his head inside, looking around, and then closing the door.

"There's a bathtub in this one. I'll make sure to keep the door closed when I use it and after," he told me as we made our way to the next room.

I nodded my head, "Thanks."

Just past the kitchen was the living room. There was a ginormous flatscreen TV on the right wall with a dark blue sofa on the opposite side. The sectional couch was leaned against the half wall that connected to the kitchen, allowing the rooms to appear larger and more open.

There was a light beige carpet covering the entirety of the living room, along with the light grey walls and the light seeping through from the windows of the balcony, the room appeared very bright.

If I were to walk straight from the front door, past the kitchen and into the living room, I would get to the balcony. There are two large sliding glass doors that lead to a large area. Lucas and I walked outside and noticed that there were two reclining outdoor chairs and a small table in between them. Past the white bars of the fence, when looking down we could overlook what seemed to be several fire pits next to a sand volleyball court two floors below ours.

"This place seriously feels like a resort," Lucas mumbled.

"For real," I turned back around and headed inside, Lucas right behind me.

We walked past the living room and turned left down the hallway. The first door on the left led to the master bedroom. There was a large king-size bed in the middle with the headboard placed against the wall. There were deep purple covers over the bed and the walls had a dark blueish grey tint. There were nightstands on both sides of the bed and a TV on the opposite side of the room.

On the adjacent wall to the window and to the right of the TV was the door to the master bath. Lucas walked inside and let out a string of curse words, "Holy fucking shit!"

What's wrong, was there another bathtub in here too? That would be extremely annoying for me...

"Kai, check this out!" Lucas' voice echoed.

I hesitantly walked inside before also shouting in excitement, "No way!"

I ran over to Lucas who was standing inside the shower. It was a neo-enclosed shower with three sides of glass connected to two adjacent tiled walls. There was a square rain showerhead that was projecting out of the light grey paneled tiles.

"Ah thank god it's high enough!" I exclaimed.

"I know right," Lucas laughed. "I think I hit my head on the showerheads of nearly all the other places we checked."

"I was honestly so worried about that too. Andreas said to just trust him with this complex, so I did. But it was on the back of my mind the whole time. What a relief," I chuckled.

Stepped down, past the glass door and back onto the white tile. The light grey tile continued on the wall outside of the shower and disappeared behind an enormous mirror that covered the entire side of the wall. Below the mirror was another granite countertop, the same color that was in the kitchen, as well as matching cabinets and drawers below it. There were two sinks, which would be very convenient.

Lucas walked out of our bedroom and into the room across the hall, "I think this used to be another bedroom, theres two desks in here and a small couch and bean bag in the back."

"Ohh a beanbag?" I ran into the other room and jumped onto it, laughing, "I've always wanted a beanbag, but there wasn't a lot of space where I used to live."

Lucas walked toward me and then shoved me off, laughing like a maniac as he belly-flopped onto the dark purple sack.

I glared at the boy, "Should we start unpacking stuff?"

"Yeah, I want to be done before 2:00 pm," Lucas cracked his knuckles as if he was preparing for a fight.

I laughed, "You want to unpack everything in four hours?"

Lucas cracked his neck, "Yep. That's the goal."

I thought it would be impossible... but it looks like I underestimated Lucas. We finished in three hours. The appliances, clothes, electronics, everything had been set up and put away.

"You're on some next level shit right now," I looked to Lucas who was staring proudly into our organized walk-in closet that I knew would be a complete mess in a matter of days.

"Do you wanna go work out?" He asked with a smile on his face. "Andreas said they have a gym, I want to check it out."

"You want to work out after all this?" I asked in disbelief. "Aren't you tired?"

"Of course not! I haven't been able to do anything for two weeks, and now that my doctor has cleared me, I have the sudden urge to use up all this pent up energy."

"Right, my bad," I chuckled. "Let's go see their gym."

Lucas made his way into the closet and handed me a black form-fitting long sleeve, a pair of black shorts, and some black athletic shoes, tossing them all on the bed. I began to get changed, pulling on a pair of crew socks as Lucas grabbed a tight dark green, nearly black tank top and black shorts that matched mine.

He slipped on an identical pair of socks that were most likely mine and a pair of black running shoes.

We made our way out of the bedroom and each filled up a water bottle using the dispenser on the fridge.

"Do you have the code memorized?" I asked Lucas as the front door closed behind us.

"Yeah, do you?"

I scoffed, "No. That's why I was asking you."

Lucas rolled his eyes as we walked into the elevator, pressing the button for the first floor, "You should memorize it unless you'd like to get locked out. It's only six digits, it's not that hard."

"Okay, I get it. I'll memorize it when we get back to the room."

The elevator stopped moving and the doors slowly opened, leading us into the main lobby area. I walked up to the front desk and asked the older man working there, "Excuse me, where's the gym?"

He looked up at me and glanced toward Lucas, seemingly recognizing us. He smiled, "If you go out the door to the left, you'll enter the common grounds. If you go straight past that, there will be another building with the gym, food center, and indoor pool."

"Right," I tapped the counter, "thank you."

Upon entering the gym Lucas' jaw dropped, "Isn't this even nicer than the gym I work at?"

"Well, this one has more machines, but you work at a boxing gym so of course it's different."

"What do you want to start with?" Lucas asked.

"We shouldn't do anything too excessive today. You only just got clearance so you should still be careful."

"Fine," he huffed as he walked over to a lat pulldown machine.

Lucas placed himself on the seat and gripped the bars, slowly pulling them down and reeling it upward even slower. He let out controlled breaths of air as I moved behind him, placing my hand in between his shoulder blades to check his form. Lucas finished his reps and then we switched places. I could tell some of the people in the gym were secretly trying to take pictures of us. It was weird, but more and more people have been doing that lately.

I was on my last set as a blonde woman approached us. She appeared to be around 5'10, fairly tall for a female. Her hair was cut into a bob and her eyes were a dull blue. She had a Roman looking nose that was hooked and had a large bump in the middle, somehow the shape complimented her features and made her beauty stand out in a unique manner. Her body was packed with muscles and she wore a sports bra with black spandex, revealing just how ripped she was.

"Nadia Petrova?" Lucas asked.

"Oh? You know my name? Impressive," she smirked, talking with a thick Russian accent.

"It would be stranger if I didn't know your name, don't you think? We will be fighting each other in the championship next week after all," Lucas replied.

I released the bars and stood next to Lucas. I recognized her not from Mad Dog but from another professional league. She's been the women's world champion for the past two years, it doesn't surprise me to see her at Mad Dog.

"True, true," She held up her hand, picking at her nails completely unbothered. "What are you two doing here? This gym is my territory."

"Territory? The fuck are you, a dog?" I muttered. "We just moved here, and it's just a gym, don't get so worked up."

She quirked her blonde eyebrow up at me, "You two moved here together? Cute," her lips curled up into a sneer.

"Yes," I replied, "absolutely adorable. Now then, we're going to get back to our workout. As should you," I glared.

"Hmm. Okay. I look forward to our fight, based on the last fight," the Russian woman looked to Lucas and snickered, "winning will not be an issue."

Lucas clenched his jaw. She was referring to when he couldn't fight because of his concussion.

She walked away, slightly swaying her hips.

"I call dibs," Lucas grunted, his fists clenched.

I laughed, "Go for it, she's all yours. Put that bitch in her place."

"Ugh!" Lucas shouted, "I'm feeling extra motivated now!"

"If all she's going off of is our last fight, then Nadia is going to be in for a surprise," I felt a smile creep up on my face. It's no fun if the opponent is scared before the fight even starts.

We pushed through the rest of our workout, both dripping sweat by the end. My black locks were sticking to my forehead and covering my eyes. Lucas' unruly chestnut hair was frizzy, giving it an extra fuzzy and fluffy looking effect.

His stomach let out a loud growl, Lucas was completely unfazed. He was chugging water from his bottle and I reached my hand out, ruffling his messy hair.

"What?" Lucas asked with the bottle still in his mouth.

I shook my head with a smile on my face, "Nothing." You're just so cute. And hot, but also adorable. "Do you want to get lunch, it's already kind of late," I said, taking my phone out of my pocket, noticing it was already after 3:00 pm.

"Yeah, I could eat."

"Want to try the buffet?" I asked as we walked through a pair of automatic doors, not bothering to go to the locker rooms and clean up.

We paid the person at the register and grabbed plates, completely loading them up with chicken, beef, and different vegetables and fruits.

I sat at a booth across from Lucas, a large light dangling above us.

I instantly began shoving strawberries into my mouth as Lucas began to talk, "So for our fight next week, I figured we should start looking into the other team sooner rather than later. It will be a lot harder this round."

"True," I shoved a piece of flavorless chicken into my mouth.

Lucas pulled up a video on his phone and put it on the side facing both of us. It looked to be a fight of Nadia and her partner.

"We just met Nadia, but it's not her I'm worried about. It's her older brother, Viktor. He's 36, 6'8, and 270lbs. Once they moved to America they both joined official leagues, but there are a lot of rumors that he was a part of the Bratva."

"The fucking mafia?" I shouted with a mouth full of food. Several people stopped what they were doing and turned to look at me. I gulped down my food and spoke quieter, "That has to be a lie, right?"

"I don't know. It's not like I can fact check it. But if he was part of the mafia, chances are he still is now. Either way, he's extremely dangerous, we need to take this fight more seriously than the others. Not just because we need to win to find your dad, but because there is a higher chance of us getting seriously hurt."

We continued to analyze their match. We watched their first fight at Mad Dog, Round 1, then Round 2, Round 3, and Round 4. We then went through all of their individual official matches. By the time we had watched everything, all of our food had been eaten.

"Shit, this is going to be hard," I scratched my head.

"I think Nadia uses Brazillian Jiu-jitsu," He pointed at the screen of his phone, "you see here? She's used to fighting against men so she's using a more defensive style. She keeps everything compact when she fights due to her smaller stature, her moves are calculated and fast. Nadia uses a lot of grappling and her goal is to get her opponent on the ground, that's her specialty. She'll try to lock your joints or put you in a chokehold."

"You're good at floor work, I'm sure you'll be fine. But we also need to talk about strategy," I told him.

"We do, it will be the most important factor in winning this match," Lucas agreed.

"You have to knock her out, the quicker the better. Once she's out we can focus on Viktor and double team him, otherwise, I can't see us winning this," I explained.

"I think Viktor uses a type of Russian martial art called ARB. You can see it for yourself, but he focuses on striking and grappling techniques. The problem is the sheer force of each strike," Lucas sighed.

"I know, he's knocked out all of his opponents with one or at most two punches. Whenever anyone lands a hit on him he doesn't even budge. We need to think of a way to take him down without letting him land a punch, while also being able to inflict damage..." I was chewing on the side of my cheek. Lucas put his phone away and both of us sat quietly, deep in thought.

"He's literally like a fucking bear," Lucas complained.

"Or a mammoth," I commented.

"Let's keep thinking about this, we have time to make a plan."

"Yeah, it will take a bit to figure this one out, maybe I should ask Jack for help, you know he's good with strategies and that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, ask him to start looking into it, we could use the extra help," Lucas turned his water bottle upside down, looking up as he drained the last of the liquid down his throat. "Oh, by the way," he started, "have you been able to find your sister's social media or anything?"

I sighed, "No, I can't find anyone with the name Charlotte Yoon. I'm not even surprised though, it wouldn't make sense for my dad to keep the same last name if he was on the run."

"So we really have to win this, huh..."

"I'm scared, Lucas," my voice was weak. "What if we lose and I never find her... I don't want her to go through the same things I did."

"Hey," Lucas said, drawing my attention back toward his face. He stared into my eyes, "We will win this fight, after that we'll help your sister and put your sicko dad in prison to rot."

Lucas reached out and grabbed my hand, placing it in his and interlacing our fingers, "You're not doing this alone anymore, Kai. We'll finish this together."