Kio.exe
Road work ahead? Uh, I sure hope it does...
-
-
basics
-
-
tags
-
TL;DR no
-
tl;dr
Malakai Vernon
Remember when...
As Hanni’s coat settled over Kai’s shoulders like a reassuring weight, he squeezed Hanni’s hand a little bit tighter, keeping close as they walked. It was a peaceful night—no one was on the streets, and the sky remained cloudless and bright, lit by the pale blue light of the full moon. It all seemed so surreal, like some sort of sick, twisted, beautiful dream. Hell, maybe he’d gotten black out drunk after all and passed out somewhere. There was no way that finally, after three years of wishing and praying, Hanni had finally admitted his feelings.
When Hannibal and Cassian had started dating, he’d locked himself in his room and cried for hours, not telling anyone. When he’d come out, he’d pretended to be happy for the couple. Happy that Hanni was happy, even if it wasn’t with Kai. Deep down, however, he’d been devastated, and when one month turned to six, and then eventually to a year and a half, he’d almost given up. He’d never known—hadn’t bothered to ask—why Cas and Hanni had ended things in the first place, but some small, evil part of Kai had been glad.
Now, they were approaching one of the playgrounds, on the way to Wolf and Hanni’s apartment, and Kai was tugged over to the swing sets, where Hanni plopped down and pulled him to stand between his legs. As his friend—wait, not friend anymore, boyfriend spoke, Kai was unable to keep his eyes off of his heartbreakingly beautiful face, lower lip trembling as all sorts of emotions raged through him.
“Hanni, I...remember when we first met? I’d just moved here from Australia, and you’d just moved from Ireland and...well my mum had just died, and I was a miserable bloke,” Kai began, hands idly tracing the cold metal of the swing’s chain. His breath was curling in idle whisps before him, before disappearing into the night, like they’d never even been there at all. “I...well I’d kind of wished I’d died in that crash with my mother. But...well...when I saw you, I swear my heart stopped dead in my chest. You were the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.”
Kai reached his hand up to trace his fingers along the contours of Hanni’s face—along the edge of his jaw, the bend of his nose. The outline of lips he’d kissed for three years and still had insisted they were only friends. Beautiful. Hannibal was truly beautiful.
“We’d had that class together. What was it? Civil History? I’d wanted nothing to do with you at first. With anyone, really,” he continued, chewing on his lower lip as he thought about what to say next. “Hell, you were just as miserable as I was, and the professor thought it would be funny to sit us right next to each other. I swear I thought you would kill me that first day. And maybe I would have welcomed it.”
Kai looked towards the sky for a moment, at the stars and the moon, who shone bright and immortal. There was a story, one that his uncle had told him after the accident, when he’d still been recovering in the hospital. He’d said that when someone you loved died, they became a star, so that the light would remind you of just how much they’d loved and cherished you during their life. He’d like to think his mum was up there, watching how far her son had come. He hoped she saw how much he’d grown, how much he’d learned. Love, hope, joy—he’d learned it all, these past three years.
“But then we started talking. I think we were making fun of some poor sap in our class, at first. Then, the next class we would giggle and pass notes like middle schoolers. I don’t think I learned anything in that class the whole year. I was always too busy thinking of something clever to tell you—some joke, or story,” Kai sighed, looking back down at Hanni. He had all those notes still, in the shoebox that sat in his closet. He’d take them out and read them sometimes, when he was sad or feeling alone. “You pulled me out of that hole I was in, and for that I will always be grateful.”
Kai let out a shaky laugh, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. “I think I knew I loved you a few months after that. It was just after Christmas, and it had snowed and damn me but I was freezing, as usual. Freshman Hanni, of course, wouldn’t give me his jacket to warm up. No. Instead, you said you had an idea, and that after I’d be warm enough for the both of us,” he smiled at the memory, one of his fondest. There had been about two feet of snow on the ground, and more to come and…
“You wanted to have a snowball fight. I thought it was absurd. How could pelting each other with balls of ice possibly warm me up? I went along with it though, more than happy to oblige. We lasted about an hour before we were both tired and bruised up, and laughing more than any two people I’d ever seen,” Kai smiled down at Hanni, his hands now placed on either side of his neck. After that day, he’d had welts from the snowballs for days, but it didn’t matter. It was one of his happiest memories.
“Anyways, we were walking back to our dorm, slipping and sliding around. Everything was icy and we were trying to see who could walk the fastest without falling. I was sure I’d win, and I turned around to tell you, and then I slipped. You tried to catch me and...well we’d ended up with you on top of me, both of us soaked and laughing like hyenas. I swear I was going to kiss you right then and there.”
It was true. Kai had never been so captivated by someone before. He’d been soaked and frozen to the bone, but it hadn’t mattered. Hell, he probably would have stayed sprawled on the ground all day if he could. Now, he merely looked Hanni in the eyes, a soft smile on his face.
“That’s when I knew I loved you.”
code by valen t.
Last edited:
