Kai didn't even have time to pull completely into the drive of the little, beat up house that Blake had pointed to before Blake was kicking open the door to Kai's precious truck and jumping out, cracked phone in hand.
"Hurry up!" he hissed, fingers clutched far too tightly around his phone. "Move your asses before I move them for you!"
Kai swung his long body out of the driver's seat and cracked his neck. In the fading light, he looked quite intimidating and Blake was frankly glad he was on their side. Kai wasn't exactly someone you wanted to poke with a stick. "Come on," he said.
"Hold up, we're just going to charge in there without a plan?" Aaron said, opening the door and clambering out clumsily, his legs wobbly after being squashed up for so long. "He could be dangerous!"
"Okay then, gotta plan?" Kai said, cracking his knuckles.
"Well, no, but-"
"Okay. Then we'll do it my way. Find the bastard and snap his neck." Kai seemed to be enjoying himself, teeth gleaming as he grinned. If this were a horror film, Kai definitely would be the serial killer in disguise.
"I have 911 on speed dial," Blake offered. "Just say we found him and he jumped out a window... repeatedly."
"Why do I have to be the voice of reason?" Aaron complained as he trailed after the two boys on the hunt for blood.
Kai kicked open the door, ready to kill anything that moved. When no ghosts popped out at him with bombs, he beckoned the others in. Blake bounced in before leaning down, and to Kai's amusement and Aaron's horror, pulled a four-inch blade out of his boot.
"What? I told you I was bringing a knife," he said, shrugging. Aaron made a choking noise.
"Nice," Kai said, nodding his head in approval. "Now where's my boyfriend?"
The house was absolutely tiny, so it didn't take them long to narrow it down to one room. Kai stood out side of it, silently counting down from three on his fingers when a horrible screeching noise came from just inside the door.
Throwing caution out the window, Kai flung open the door in a panic, sure that Jared had hurt Drew, Blake, and Aaron right behind him.
Drew was huddled in the corner, hands over his mouth. Jared was on the floor, blood flowing from a wound in his temple. He looked dead. Drew's head snapped up when Kai opened the door, pupils blown wide open in fear.
He let out a choking sob. "Oh my God, I killed him."
Kai took four long steps across the room and gathered Drew up into his arms, quietly shushing and soothing him as Drew tucked himself as close to him as possible. "Shh, it's okay, Deedee, it's okay," he said sweetly, stroking his hair.
Blake crouched down next to Drew and rubbed his arm quietly.
"Is this guy dead?" Aaron asked loudly, jabbing at Jared with his foot. "He looks dead."
Blake sighed and stood up. He leaned down and put two fingers on Jared's neck. "No, he has a pulse." He shook his head. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath.
Drew looked up, "He's not dead?"
"Nope. Might need a few stitches, though. That's a nasty wound in his head."
"Want to tell us what happened, Deedee?" Kai said softly.
Drew took in a ragged breath. "Um, I-I woke up here, and he came in a-and started telling me I was beautiful and stuff like that, 'n how much he loved me and wanted me to stay here w-with him."
Kai's grip tightened a little. "And?" he encouraged gently.
"T-the door was open, so I tried to make a run for it, but he stopped me. He started t-touching me and telling m-me I was gonna stay here forever so-" Drew's voice broke and he bravely scrubbed his tears away and took a deep breath. "-so I slammed his head on the dresser over there. I didn't want to kill him! I swear!" Drew looked panicked and Kai wondered briefly if this is how he looked when he had been abused by those people what seemed like so long ago.
"It's okay, love, you did nothing wrong." Kai picked up one of Drew's hands and pressed kisses to each of his fingertips. "You didn't do anything wrong and I'm so proud of you, okay?"
Drew nodded. Kai stood, pulling Drew to his feet. "Let's take you home, okay? Your mom's probably worried sick. Let's just hope she doesn't kill me, huh?"
Drew smiled a little. "She won't." He tilted his head up and welcomed a kiss on his cheek. "She'll probably make you a pie for saving me."
"I didn't save you; you saved yourself, you brave little hero," Kai said, poking his tongue out.
"Um, guys?" Aaron asked. "What do we do with the corpse here?" He poked Jared again, none-too-gently.
Kai groaned. "I guess we have to take him to a hospital or something. Come on, let's throw him in the trunk."
"Ew," Aaron muttered as he gingerly picked Jared's dead looking self up.
"See?" Blake said, slapping his shoulder. "Told you you'd come in handy!" He scurried away after Drew and Kai, sniggering immaturely.
After Aaron had dragged Jared down the stairs and tossed him in the boot, and he and Blake had piled in the back, (Drew got the passenger's seat of course) Kai started the engine. "So should we call the police?" he piped up.
Drew bit his lip. "No."
"Why? Baby, he kidnapped you! Don't you want to see him thrown in jail?"
Drew was silent, gnawing on his lip until Kai was worried it was going to split. "I don't think he should go to jail," he finally said. "I think something's wrong with him."
Blake scoffed, "You're darn right something's wrong with him!"
"No, I mean, when we were... talking, I guess, he kept mentioning a them. Like they told him to do something. They said something was okay. They told him to kidnap me." Drew wrung his hands in his lap, and Kai reached over to squeeze them reassuringly.
"So what? Like schizophrenia?" Aaron asked.
"I don't think so. At least not just that. Plenty of schizophrenics live perfectly healthy lives with medication and stuff. Schizophrenia doesn't make you a monster."
"Well, I doubt he's on meds, but I guess we can take him to the hospital to get checked out," Kai said. He turned on the GPS.
***
"I don't understand," Drew said blankly. The doctor sighed and adjusted his glasses that were slipping down his nose.
"Completely? Neither do I, I haven't had time to run a full series of tests, but as far as I can tell, Derek here-"
"Jared," Kai corrected, a hand on Drew's shoulder protectively.
"My bad, Larry here must have suffered a traumatic event in his life, probably involving someone he loved, and has latched onto Drew instead as a replacement for the love that he lost. He's unstable and is suffering from a mental break from the looks of it, but I think he can be helped."
Drew let out a huge breath he didn't know he was keeping in and slouched in the uncomfortable plastic chair he was sitting in. Kai, who was standing behind him, rubbed his shoulders. "So he'll be okay?"
"As best as I can tell. Again, I haven't run the proper tests yet and I have to tell you this isn't even close to my area of specialty. This is all gathered from a few quick tests and actually talking to him-- who bashed in his skull like that anyways? Any further up the temple and he probably would have died. He's going to need stitches."
Drew shifted uncomfortably. "T-that would be me."
"Why on earth did you do that?" The doctor held up his hands and brushed his brown hair out of his eyes. "Never mind, I don't want to know. I figure I'd have to call the police and who wants to do that?"
"Right.... Do we need to do anything else or can we go home?" Kai asked.
"How old are you?" The doctor asked suddenly. "You look far too young to be mixed up in anything like this."
"It wasn't a mafia hit or anything if that's what you're thinking, but I'm eighteen and Drew's seventeen nearly eighteen."
The doctor nodded slowly. "Okay, you're free to go. I'll call you if anything comes up."
Kai thanked him again and helped Drew up. Blake looked up from where he was sitting on the floor as they left the room. He scrambled up. "Are you okay?" he asked, hugging Drew tightly.
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. I think."
"Let's get you home," Kai said, guiding him down the hall.
"Oh, excuse me," a tall nurse who smelt strongly of alpha muttered as he accidentally bumped into Drew's shoulder.
Drew let out a loud gasp of surprise and flung himself backwards violently, crashing into Kai who immediately wrapped his arms around his chest protectively.
Kai's chest clenched painfully as he saw the fear in Drew's eyes.
"Are you okay?" the nurse asked. Drew shrunk away, holding out his hands to keep the nurse away from him.
Blake stepped between the confused nurse and Drew, "Sorry, he's had bad experiences with alphas. Do you mind?" The nurse nodded understandingly and moved away quickly. Blake turned and slowly held out his hands palm up at Drew. "Are you good now?"
Drew nodded shakily, "Yeah, yeah, sorry. Just-just need a second, yeah?" He rubbed his eyes harshly with the palm of his hand. "Damn, this is going to be so many years of therapy...."
He looked up at the people who were staring at him in horror. "That was a joke; please laugh, I feel like a loser."
Instead of laughing, Kai just hugged him tighter and rested his chin on Drew's shoulder. "I'm glad you're for the most part okay," he said quietly. "You have no idea how worried I was."
Aaron was about to join in on that hug when he stopped short. "Hey, Blake?" he asked. "Where's that knife you had? They would never let you bring that into a hospital."
"You had a knife?" Drew gasped. "I thought I took that away from you!"
Blake shrugged. "I'm good at hiding things."
Drew groaned. "Give me some time to recover before you give me a heart attack, okay? Please keep in mind I probably am going to require therapy which is not something I enjoy, so the last thing I need is for you to mess up and accidentally stab someone, okay? I'm going to be pissed if I can only see you on Thursdays."
And with that, he brushed off his jeans and walked away.
The three boys stared after him with wide eyes. "There goes an incredibly strong person," Kai finally said, with not a little awe in his voice.
"I'd be a complete and utter mess, but look at him go!" Aaron said.
"Yeah look at him- wait, why's he coming back?"
Drew marched past them, face bright red. "Exit's the other way," he muttered.
"Oh," was the collective response. Kai was the first to shake his head fondly and run after Drew, catching up to him and grabbing his hand with a smile. Blake was just about to start after them when Aaron grabbed his shoulder.
"Hey can I talk to you?" he asked quietly. Blake raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah sure; make it quick, though, I don't want to get left behind." He shifted his weight onto his hip.
Aaron bit his lip nervously. "I was just thinking-"
"You think?" Blake muttered. Aaron was about to be offended when he saw the tiny smile on Blake's face.
"Yeah, shocking isn't it? But for real, though. I really think you and I reconnected today. I know I've been a really big fucking asshole recently and I'm really sorry for that. You have no idea how sorry I am. You're such an amazing guy and you mean a lot to me. So I guess what I'm trying to say is... um.... could we have another try? Start over maybe?" He stared hopefully at Blake, playing with his fingers apprehensively.
"I, um..." Blake stuttered, face heating up. "I don't..."
Aaron's face fell. "Okay. I get it. Sorry."
"Hold up. I never finished did I?" Blake said, catching his arm and keeping him from running away. "As I was saying, I don't think jumping into another relationship is a good idea. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still a bit bitter over the breakup, but maybe we could be friends again and see where that goes?" His face was a dark red and he looked prepared to jump into a pool of lava at any given second.
Aaron was practically glowing as he grinned from ear to ear. "Really?"
"Wait a minute, I just said we could be friends; why are you acting like I agreed to marry you?"
"Because all the best romance novels have the best friends fall in love and get married," Aaron crowed.
Blake's jaw fell open. "Are you for real?" he deadpanned.
In response, Aaron, quite carried away with himself, swooped Blake up by the waist and planted a heated kiss on his lips. Then he put him down quite quickly. "Right, friends, right. Yep. Friends. Wonderful things, friends are, hehehe..." he trailed off awkwardly.
Blake straightened his mussed hair and touched his slightly swollen lips. "Yeah, friends..."
"Yeah... Anyways Drew 'n Kai are probably waiting for us so we should... go, I guess," Aaron said, scuffing his shoe on the ground.
"Yep, I'd say they probably are..."
You could practically taste the awkwardness in the air as the two idiots refused to look at each other, staring anywhere but at the other.
"I give them a day," Kai whispered from around the corner of the hallway. "The sexual tension is so thick I can feel it!"
Drew scoffed quietly. "I give them five minutes. Blake is decidedly weak-willed when it comes to Aaron. Mark my words." He continued peeking around the corner, hoping that no nurses would see them and think they were intruders.
"Shall we?" Aaron asked.
"Shall we what?" Blake asked dumbly.
"Go find our friends," Aaron explained.
"Oh, yeah, sure. Sounds goo- okay fuck this, we can be "friends" in five minutes," Blake snapped before grabbing Aaron by the back of the neck and smashing his lips onto Aaron's.
If you listened carefully you could just hear the noises of Kai paying Drew who was sniggering softly.
Aaron and Blake joined the others in the truck a solid twenty-five minutes later. Both of them ignored the looks Drew, who wasn't nearly as subtle as Kai, sent at them, and all seemed right with the world again....
Except for some reason, Blake seemed to be having a hard time sitting down properly. He squirmed around a little before wincing and starting to rub his lower back before stopping and blushing.
Drew twitched a little and Kai sighed. "Here we go...." he muttered.
"Okay, are you for real!?" Drew burst out. "In a hospital, really? C'mon guys there are sick people there! And you!" He pointed at Blake, "I would expect this from Aaron but you? Didn't you get on my case for, what was it? 'Fucking in the bathroom?' I'm like, ninety percent sure a hospital is worse than a bathroom! How did you not get caught!? And didn't you hate each other yesterday? Is this a fling? Tell me this isn't a fling! Dear Lord, it's a fling, isn't it? I'm wayyyyyy too young to be an uncle so you!" He pointed at Aaron this time, "keep your hands to yourself, thanks very much!"
Blake turned scarlet. "F-for your information, I crashed into a doctor and fell, n-not that!"
Drew blinked. "Is that so?" Kai snorted loudly from beside him. "Shut it," he hissed at Kai, who snorted louder. "Well. Glad we had this talk," he said awkwardly." He turned to Kai again. "Open the damn door, I'm walking home."
Kai obviously didn't open the door, and Drew spent the car ride slouched down in his seat with a face so red steam was practically hissing out of his ears.