Kiri: Chapter 12

“Hey, sleepy head, it’s time to wake up.”

Groaning, Ryo rolled over fully intending to swat Loren away. Unfortunately, in his sleeping daze, he had forgotten where he was and ended up landing on the blonde’s feet on the floor in front of his couch.

“Ow,” the Asian man groaned as he blinked his eyes open and looked up blearily at his friend.

Nodding agreeably, Loren scooted backwards and knelt by the fallen man. Carefully he sat the wire-rimmed glasses on Ryo’s face and grinned. “Are you awake or should I have Kite fetch a glass of ice water?”

“I’m up. I’m up!” Ryo growled waving his hands defensively at the man. He half sat and propped himself against the couch to rub at his eyes beneath his glasses. “See? I’m up. What time is it?”

“Half past nine by your clock,” Loren replied, rising to his feet. He reached down and patted Ryo on his ruffled black hair gently. “Hurry up and come into the kitchen. I’m making walnut waffles.”

“No walnuts!” Kite called from the kitchen.

“Right, no walnuts for Kite,” the blonde model said tapping his forehead with his index finger.

“I got some doughnuts last night,” Ryo said closing his eyes again and leaning his head back against the sofa’s pillows.

“We know,” Kite said as he came out of the kitchen carrying a steaming mug of tea. Kneeling down beside the author, he handed it over with a bright smile. “We found it when we first got up.”

Sipping at the warm sweetly bitter liquid, Ryo frowned. “How long have you two been up?”

“Hm… since around eight when Kyon decided he was ready for us to be up,” Kite replied with a wry smile.

Ryo laughed wickedly and was very glad he hadn’t been on the receiving end of that wake up call this morning. The little cat had claws like needles and usually managed to find the most sensitive spots in which to dig them.

“Hurry up, the two of you,” Loren said as he disappeared into the kitchen. “I’ll have waffles ready in a bit. Kite, yours will be done first, then I’m adding the nuts.”

“I think he’s nuts,” Kite muttered as he moved to sit cross-legged in the floor. He craned his head backward over his shoulder to look at the kitchen door before turning back to Ryo. “I’m sorry about last night.”

Tilting his head to the side, the Asian man leaned forward and ruffled the auburn hair. “Nightmares are nothing to apologize for, Kite. You can’t help having them—no one can. It’s not your fault and I don’t blame you for anything so don’t say you’re sorry.”

“I thought you would have been there before I fell asleep last night,” the boy said rubbing his hands together uncertainly.

“It took longer than I thought it would,” Ryo said honestly. His smile was gentle when he settle back on the couch to sip his tea. “You were already asleep, and you were so cute curled up against Loren. I didn’t see any reason to wake either of you up.”

Blushing, Kite ducked his head. “I meant to stay up and wait for you.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you got some sleep last night.”

The younger boy gave Ryo a bright smile, and he pushed to his feet. “I’m going to set the table. I think you’ve got time to take a shower if you need to before breakfast.”

“I had one last night,” the author reminded him with a grin.

“Ah—that’s right! Just before Loren showed up.” Kite tapped himself on the temple. “I forgot. Anyway, hurry up, and we’ll eat soon. Do you want syrup?”

Rising to his feet, Ryo shook his head. “Nope, jam. I’ll get it. You go ahead and get the table ready.”

The two went into the kitchen where they were immediately ordered to work by Loren who tended to rule the kitchen whenever he came over to visit Ryo. The young author didn’t mind. As much as he enjoyed cooking, he also loved to let the blonde cook for him. It gave him someone to talk to—and watch—while the meal was prepared.

Once Loren had finished making the waffles, the three of them set down at the small table and ate in relative quiet. It was broken on occasions when someone would ask for the butter or syrup to be passed, but it was a pleasant way to spend the morning, and Ryo found himself staring at Kite after a while, wondering about the story his sister had told him the night before.

“Ryo—“

“Hmm?”

“Ryo!”

“What?” Ryo’s head snapped up and around to look at Loren. Kite was snickering loudly from the kitchen sink, and the black haired man blushed. “What?”

Laughing softly, Loren sat a fresh cup of tea before Ryo and took away the fork he had been absently tapping on his empty plate. “I’ve been trying to ask if you wanted to go to the park today. You’ve not been paying much attention.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking—“

“And half asleep.”

“Yeah and half-asleep,” Ryo agreed. He glanced at Kite and shrugged. “I’m willing to do whatever you guys want to today.”

“Park,” Kite said from the sink.

“Okay, I guess it wasn’t so much of asking if I wanted to go then was it?”

“Nope.” Kite grinned. “You just got told.”

Ryo shook his head. “I guess I did. Did the two of you make plans already or were you going to wait for me to decide?”

Wagging his finger at the man, Loren put on a patronizing expression. “You missed out on that about the time you finished your waffles. Were they good by the way?”

“Wonderful as always,” Ryo said affectionately. “You’re food is always to die for, Lor. So what are we doing at the park?”

“We’re going to go play,” the auburn haired youth beamed.

Arching his eyebrow steeply, Ryo looked over at the blonde. “Meaning?”

“That’s about as far as we got.” He laughed silently. “See? We’re not entirely heartless. If you’re ready though, the dishes are washed, and we’re ready to go.”

The Asian author nodded his head and pushed up from his seat. “I’m ready. I just need to put on some tennis shoes.”

Neither Loren nor Kite raised a complaint as he left the room and disappeared into his bedroom. He disturbed Kyon-Kyon by sitting down on the bed to pull on his shoes, and the little gray kitten leapt from the bed as his tail slashed the air in irritation. The man’s face eased even with his cat mad at him.

When he emerged from the room to find his two friends waiting near the door, and he ushered them out with a wave of his hand. Loren insisted on taking his car—a pretty little black Mercedes, saying that he couldn’t stand sitting on the asphalt when he rode in the 240SX. With only mild irritation, Ryo clambered into the back of the Mercedes and leaned up so he could whisper into Kite’s left ear.

“See, this is what you get when you have money. My little car’s price tag could have fit into this one and rattled around.”

Kite laughed covering his mouth.

“Hey, it’s true actually,” Loren said as they pulled out into the street. He looked over to grin at the boy. “I tried to get him to let me help pay for a better car, but, of course not, my little author has a tendency towards independence.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to contemplate how I would have to pay off the debt is more like it,” Ryo rejoined with a snort.

“But it would have been fun,” the blonde said winking over his shoulder.

“Oh, drive.”

Laughing heartily, the model did as he was told, and they rode the rest of the thirty-minute drive in contented silence except for the occasional bursts of randomness from one of them.

When they reached the park, they set out immediately upon Kite’s demand towards the playground. He seemed not to mind that he was the oldest person playing on the swings or that he got odd looks from a few mothers as he slid down the slide. And Ryo watched him with a sad smile able to comprehend finally how such a simple thing as playing on a playground might appeal to the high school student.

Loren, of course, was right beside Kite in most of it—playing on the swings, the merry-go-round, the monkey bars. His angelic appearance quickly won over the mothers in the area as well, and while Ryo pushed himself peacefully on the swings, his two friends started a game of tag with the children on the playground.

A smile played about the young author’s lips as he watched. It felt peaceful here swinging back and forth like this. He could almost imagine a young Skye laughing with her friends as she pushed a three year old Kite on the swings. His green eyes would have lit up his entire face as he pealed with laughter. His innocence would have still been real.

Ryo’s face darkened, and he stared pensively at the ground. Last night when he had arrived back at his apartment, they had already fallen asleep again, and not wanting to disturb them, he had settled into Loren’s blankets on the couch. He had been caught in a trap of his own mind for several hours after that. He hadn’t been able to think about Kite’s past in too much detail, but the numbing reality of the boy’s life had kept him awake. He honestly hadn’t been asleep long before Kyon-Kyon had decided to wake up the occupants of his bed.

A heavy hand clamped down on Ryo’s shoulder, and he would have jumped from the swing if it hadn’t been restraining him. The familiar chuckle calmed him, and he looked up into Loren’s face with an apologetic grin.

“You’ve really been out of it today,” the blonde commented as they headed away from the swing set to a bench under a large oak tree.

Rubbing his neck, the young author nodded. “I’m sorry. Where’s Kite?”

“Getting us ice cream. I gave him some money. He’s getting you bubble gum flavored. I told him it was your favorite,” Loren said gazing at the line to the ice cream shop with a smirk on his face.

“Bubble gum?” Ryo nearly gagged on the word. He turned a solid glare onto his friend.

“To punish you for being so withdrawn today.”

“I hate that stuff!” “I know, but don’t let that on to Kite. He’ll be upset if you don’t enjoy it,” the blonde said with a smug expression. “So what’s been bothering you? Something you heard last night?"

Slowly, Ryo nodded. A few moments passed in silence before Loren cleared his throat.

“Well?”

“I can’t tell you—“

“What?” Ryo wasn’t too surprised when Loren grabbed him by the front of the shirt and jerked him around to face him. “What do you mean you can’t tell me? You’ve been moping around all day, and you won’t even tell me what’s wrong?!”

Sighing, the black haired author covered his friend’s hand with his own and squeezed gently. “I talked to his sister. She told me some things about their past that I’m not at liberty to share. I’m sorry.”

Loren’s amethyst eyes flashed dangerously, but he let go of the shirt and pulled Ryo into an affectionate headlock. “You know you can always trust me to keep your secrets right?”

A warm smile lit up the Asian man’s face at the gentle words, and he closed his eyes not struggling in the grip that had become more of a hug than anything else. In a quiet voice, he whispered, “I know. Thank you.”

In the warm sun and the cool breeze and held in the model’s strong arms, Ryo felt himself contented just to lie quietly. Their friendship had always been a calm one, openly affectionate, and just having him back was so nice.

Ryo was nearly asleep when Kite called out their names. He opened his eyes and sat up as Loren allowed him. The auburn haired boy almost bounced as he came over and handed them their ice cream cones—chocolate for himself, moose tracks for Loren, and the pink bubble gum flavored atrocity for Ryo.

Accepting his cone with a weak smile, the man shot Loren a look that told him without words just how slow and painful would be his death. He ate the sugar overload without relish but without complaint as Kite settled into the grass in front of them.

“You should be a model, Kite.”

Blinking Ryo looked up at Loren and arched an eyebrow. Kite’s reaction was a little less calm. The yelped, “What?” turned a number of heads around them. The blonde smiled though, and inwardly the author groaned.

“I’m serious, Kite. I mean look at you! You are, quite honestly, adorable.” The boy blushed hotly. “You’re not gorgeous yet, but you’ll get there, no problem. Plus, you look young—“

“That’s not my fault,” Kite said defensively.

“I’m not saying it is! It can actually be a great thing! I mean seriously, you look thirteen or fourteen, but you aren’t! I think it’s great! I think if you gave it a shot, you’d be huge!”

Glancing at Kite, Ryo smiled reassuringly at the look that was cast his direction. The boy was obviously trying to gauge Loren’s sanity at this point. He shrugged.

“He is a model, Kite. I don’t know much about it, but if he thinks you’d do well, you probably would. He tried to get me to model once, but I was too nervous. I never have liked cameras, but you could at least check it out right? There’s nothing that says you have to do it if you don’t want to. Neither Loren nor I will ever ask you to do something that you don’t want to.”

The boy shifted uncomfortably but after a few moments of silent contemplation in which he continued to lick his ice cream, he finally nodded. “I guess… I could talk to Skye. It could be fun.”

Bouncing on the bench, Loren crunched down the last of his cone and came to his feet with a jubilant crow. He began talking almost to himself, though he seemed to remember that Kite and Ryo were there occasionally, about the things he needed to do to get Kite introduced to modeling. The black haired author grinned, he could tell from the brightness in the boy’s green eyes as the blonde described the wonders of the job that he was nearly one hundred percent convinced.

***
End Chapter 12
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