Friends

KAIN

Kian was taking glances behind him, peeking over his shoulder once every few seconds. The hairs on the back of his neck were tingling. He was getting a headache. As usual, Emi was the source of it.

“I don’t mean to be rude…” He started, rubbing a finger hard against his temple.

“Shut up, Kian. If you start like that, you one hundred percent mean to be rude. Don’t say whatever you’re thinking.”

Kian bit back a snappy reply and took a few calming breaths before trying again. “It’s just… I don’t know how we got to this… situation.” He was speaking with his back to the group, his body facing the monitor throwing “WAIT FOR THE FOOT TRAIN TO STOP BEFORE BOARDING” across its screen.

Emi pushed a loud sigh from her mouth and forced Kian around by the shoulders. He glared at her as she said, “There is no situation. Druce is going back with us to Mid-East Vermillion. Done.”

“Exactly what I’d call a situation, Emi! How the hell did it happen?” He gestured wildly at Druce who stood a few paces behind Dr. Rallus who silently looked on like he’d seen this plenty of times before. “I don’t remember agreeing to this! I don’t remember saying, ‘Hey, let’s let the strange person we know nothing about who showed up out of nowhere and who claims they come from nowhere follow us the fuck home!’”

Kian paused, looked again at Druce who did that thing again—pouty lips, head to the side. Playful, attractive, annoying. He turned back to Emi, furious. “Emi. No.” he said.

The girl shook her head, the long red strands of her hair covering her bare shoulders where the straps of her tank top didn’t reach. For mid-May, the night air was stale with a never-ending summer heat, and Kian wondered why Emi didn’t just pull her hair up into a ponytail. It’d stop her hair from sticking to her skin, he figured, seeing how it lacked the movement it had earlier. He then found himself tracking her movements as she dissed him for Druce, grabbing Druce’s hand and interlocking their fingers. He thought of Druce’s shorter, curly red hair, cupping their round face and setting their dark skin aglow—the exact opposite of Emi.

And then he wondered with some embarrassment why he was so caught up in observing the pair's hair in the first place.

“You can stay with me, Druce.” Emi was saying, “Clearly, Kian’s gonna need some time to stop shitting himself. In the meantime, you’ll love my room! It’s got—”

The hell she say about me? Kian thought just as the station’s bell ding-dinged to signal the slowing of the foot train.

Dr. Rallus ushered them all onto the moving platform before anyone else could say another word.

An hour and forty-five minutes later, Kian was glad to feel the foot molds unlock and slide away from his feet. He hated the super-speed platform as much as Emi loved it.

Her hair had torpedoed all over her head and looked to be suffocating her, but she smiled and raved about the thing’s incredible speed as she unwound her locks. Druce, whose hair was stiffer and was misshapen in some places, smoothed the strands down into a tamer state of distress. The pair were clinging to one another, cracking up about how stupid they each had looked, and Kian felt a pint of contagious happiness bubble up in his stomach while watching them.

A smile crept its way onto his face before he could slurp it back down, and he turned away in case a laugh wanted to slip out as well. He hated feeling this way—lighthearted—like he should be allowed to outlive his sadness and pain, his weaknesses and the regrets those fed.

Not until he was stronger and his family safer could he allow himself to breathe freely.

Before anyone could see, he swallowed the feeling and returned his attention to the group where he was met with three sets of penetrating eyes. They had all seen him and they each had a different look in their eyes: Emi looked hopeful, Druce was curious, and Dr. Rallus seemed understanding, eyes so tender Kian could hear words in them.

You belong, you’re okay, live with us. Smile.

Kian shook his head, flinging those words in his mind away before his heart could hear them, and frowned when Druce was the first to say, “So, he does know how to smile.”

“Happens from time to time,” Emi answered, her face a little emotional.

Kian kept his lips zipped as he shifted from foot to foot, wanting the moment to end. It did when Dr. Rallus announced that it was time for him to head home, choosing not to comment on Kian’s slip-up.

“It’s late and I know my wife and Senya are waiting up.” The doctor explained, moving toward the stairs that would take them down to the street below.

Kian moved to intercept the doctor’s footsteps before he got too far. “Don’t forget,” was all he said, referring to their previous conversation and the doctor’s promise to surgically enhance Kian’s cerebrum and eyes. The short nod he got from Dr. Rallus was what he needed to let the older man go.

Satisfied, Kian focused on Emi and their newest ‘friend,’ Druce, the individual with nothing to return to, the alluring stranger from nowhere.

“So…” Kian folded his arms across his chest and looked down his nose at the individual before him, “What in the world are we gonna do about you?” he asked.

Druce shrugged, “Anything, really. I can handle a short tussle if that’s where this is going.”

Huh? Kian thought, and stepped back when Druce stepped forward, a smirk pressing up the side of their lips.

“Or,” Druce continued, “I could go home with you instead of Emi? And we could tussle there?” Druce winked, grey eyes swimming with mischief.

Kian almost fell. “W-W-What—What the—” He stuttered, then swallowed thickly, “What are you talking about?!”

“Oh, my gosh, look at his face!” Emi was screaming, cackling as Druce, too, slumped forward with laughter.

Kian wasn’t sure what to do about his facial expression. He was shocked and embarrassed so he was sure his face was red, and his heart wouldn’t stop hammering in his chest.

Emi straightened now, still broken up with laughter, and explained, “Druce is staying at my place, you oaf. She can’t possibly stay at yours; she was just kidding!”

She… She?!

Kian felt his heart skip a few times in his chest. He wanted to pretend this clarifying information was what had explained her earlier allure and was what explained it now; but he knew gender had never mattered, anyway. Druce, the stranger, was mysterious and attractive. And now, she knew that he thought so. 

Worse—so did Emi. 

Just my luck, he groaned, and when he thought about asking why Druce didn’t just stay in an inn nearby, he heard a voice in his head that told him: That’s not what friends are for. 

Odd... That voice had sounded a lot like his own, and he was left dumbstruck. Embarrassed again. Like he was betraying the wall he had long ago built up in his heart.

Friends. He thought, feeling opposing desires to move away and to get closer to Druce at the same time. He felt uncomfortable looking at her and feared that she might become too important.

Another person to cry for... and die for.

Kian's felt like his heart was being forced open, and he knew that, in a way, it was. That scared him.

I'm forgetting how to protect myself.