#49:Darling Don’t You Ever Grow Up
Continuity: Sometime around chapter 4, IDK anymore. I need to straighten out this continuity stuff.
WARNING FOR AWKWARD EXPLANATIONS OF HOW WORKS

Suho knew that Kai had a penchant for sweating. The kid worked hard, it’s not easy to rip time and space apart and walk between the cracks, as Kai had put it before. It’s exhausting, mentally and physically. A couple of his fellow guardians had the same problem—Chanyeol frequently sweats a lot, as did Kyungsoo and Tao. Nobody thought twice about stripping off their outer robes and walking around in their undershirts and pants, or just the pants if it was really bad. But ever since Kai turned thirteen…seeing him walk around half had started making Suho very, very upset. He had taken to carrying an extra robe around with him and trying to make Kai wear it whenever he could.

“Stop!” Kai whined, squirming out of the robe and pouting. “I’m hot, I’m going to get heatstroke at this rate!”

Suho felt his eye twitch. “We have guests,” he growled. “You have to be proper.”

Kai bristled immediately. “Then I’ll just spend the day in my room!” He hollered, and marched off, still  half-.

Suho hissed under his breath and ran to find the only person who could understand him.

He barged right into the room he shared with his fellow leader. “Kris!!”

Kris jumped, splattering the table with ink—luckily it seemed to miss his homework. “What? What’s wrong?” He gasped.

Suho glowered. “Kai is walking around indecently.”

Kris narrowed his eyes. “It’s not my problem,” he deadpanned. “Not my kid, not my problem.”

“Yes it is!” Suho cried, throwing down the robe. “He’s my kid but he’s your little brother, too! And there’s people around, people who aren’t like us—”

“What do you mean, not like us?” Kris demanded. “They’re like us.”

“No,” Suho insisted. “They’re not. And if I ran this place I would have kicked them straight out. Do you see the way they look at us? At Kai?! They stare at him like, like…like they want to eat him! Like he’s a piece of meat!”

“You’re being dramatic,” Kris sighed, but he did look worried.

“I’m not!” Suho shouted. “I know what I see, I know how they look at him! Kris, that’s my baby they’re looking at like…like they want to defile him!”

“They wouldn’t,” Kris said quickly, standing up and rushing over to comfort Suho (he was near tears). “They know Kai is underage.”

“Do they?” Suho asked hysterically. “He doesn’t look it. He’s only thirteen but he looks like a man, Kris. He’s growing up and I…I don’t like it.”

“He has to grow up sometime,” Kris reminded him. “They all do. At some point, we need to acknowledge that.”

Suho sank to his knees, shaking his head. “Not now, not at thirteen years old! Not with…one of these people! What if he falls for one of them before he knows what love is?”

“You didn’t have that problem with Sehun,” Kris pointed out.

Suho glared at him. “Sehun knows what love is,” he growled. “Sehun knows what it’s like to be loved. Kai doesn’t, or he’s still learning. It took me so long to build up what I have with him and I still feel like he doesn’t understand how I can love him. He hates himself, Kris, he’s not emotionally mature enough to fall in love and with the way these people are looking at him…I can’t help but worry that they’ll make him grow up too fast!”

Kris was quiet for a while. Then, “I see now. I know you really love Kai. He is your baby, after all.”

“You would feel the same if it was Tao,” Suho said.

But Kris shook his head. “Tao isn’t my baby. I was never a parent to him, I was never anything more than a good friend.” He laughs a little sadly. “I couldn’t even be a proper brother to him, I didn’t know how.”

Suho sniffled. “Well, you’d feel the same anyway.” He huffed and pouted. “When are these people leaving? Their carriages must be fixed by now, the weather is fine…what’s taking so long?!”

A group of travelers had gotten stuck in the snow when a few of their carriages had been damaged by the bad weather, but really, they had been at the sanctuary for two weeks. They were overstaying their welcome.

“I don’t know,” Kris sighed.

Suho hated feeling so helpless. Kai didn’t want his help, he though Suho was being overbearing. Suho kept a close eye on him at dinner that night, watching the group of teenagers that were eyeing Kai. They were about Suho’s own age, and one thing was for sure, they had no business looking at Kai that way. And Kai was totally oblivious to it all! It was not good, and Suho had a really bad feeling about it all. He tried to approach Kai about it after dinner, but Kai vanished before he could. The bad feeling stayed with Suho, so he went off to search. He circled around the whole Sanctuary before coming back to the dining hall, and that’s when he heard voices. They were coming from inside, and he was just out of sight of the doors.

“We’re leaving soon, I just want to try something before I go.”

It was a girl, probably one of the ones who had been eyeing Kai for the last two weeks. Suho decided to stay hidden for the time being, but he wouldn’t leave. Maybe she knew where Kai was.

“What do you want to try?”

That was Kai. Suho’s stomach dropped. Oh no, this couldn’t be good.

“Just something fun.”

“…what is it? Tell me.”

“She wants you to kiss her.” It was a boy speaking, and Suho bit back a gasp. There were two of them?!

“No,” Kai said firmly. “I don’t want to.”

“What?” The girl asked incredulously. “Why?”

“Kissing is only for married people. I learned that the hard way from a friend of mine. And I don’t want to kiss you.”

“What the…why not?!”

“Because I don’t like you.”

“It’s just a kiss, Kai,” the boy scoffed. “What are you, a baby? Haven’t you kissed anyone before?”

“Yes, I just told you, and he yelled at me for it.”

“Well he was an idiot,” the girl sniffed.

“Oye!” Kai yelled, “Don’t talk about my friend that way!”

“I won’t if you kiss me.”

“I said no!”

“Just do it for crying out loud, I want something to remember you by!”

“Let go of me! Ouch—”

Suho burst into the doors. The girl had Kai by the wrist, and the other boy was standing by the side watching. He was older, Suho realized. Old enough to know better.

“Let go of him,” Suho ordered coldly. The girl dropped Kai’s wrist and Kai backed away from her, glaring.

Suho turned his gaze to the boy. “Shame on you,” he growled. “He said no, why didn’t you stop her?”

“She wasn’t hurting anyone,” The boy sneered. “She just wanted a kiss, she didn’t want to f—”

Suho lashed out, a whip of water cracking next to the boy’s ear. The boy jumped, as did the girl.

“I’d choose your next words very carefully if I were you,” Kris said from behind Suho. The Tree only knew when he had gotten there.

Kai looked upset. He was backing away from the boy and girl, and Suho held his hand out to him. “Kai, come here.”

Kai ran over and grabbed onto Suho’s hand. Suho fixed the pair with a glower. “Stay the hell away from him,” he growled, and then he marched out, Kai hurrying along with him. Kris took up the rear, slamming the hall doors shut behind him.

Suho lead Kai to his and Kris’ room, and as soon as the door closed behind them he turned to Kai and started fussing.

“Are you okay? Did she hurt you? Baby, let me see your wrist…”

“’M okay,” Kai mumbled as he held out his wrist.

“Are you sure?” Suho asked, choking up a little as he inspected the damage. “It looks like she grabbed you pretty tightly.”

Kai sniffled and Suho felt his heart break. “Oh sweetie, does it hurt? Do you want me to take you to the healers?”

“No,” Kai said shakily, and then he burst into tears.

Suho held out his arms and Kai fell into him, sobbing into his robes. “It’s okay,” Suho crooned, rubbing Kai’s back gently. “Shh, baby, you’re okay now. You’re okay…”

“What happened?” Kai hiccupped. “Why was she so insistent? Why did she care so much? Why…why was I scared of her?”

Suho felt like he’d swallowed ice. He looked at Kris over Kai’s head and saw the same shock he felt reflected on Kris’ face. “You were scared?” Suho echoed.

Kai nodded and clutched Suho tighter. “She looked mad, she was pulling on my arm…and I wanted to leave but I couldn’t…I couldn’t pull away from her and…I didn’t even think about teleporting! I’m so stupid…”

“No, no you’re not,” Suho said at once. He guided Kai over to his bed and made him sit. Kai continued to cry, and it broke Suho’s heart even more. “It’s not your fault. She was trying to make you do something you didn’t want to do, making you feel like you were cornered and had no choice, and that’s not okay.” He placed his fingers under Kai’s chin and tipped his head up. “Nobody has a right to make you feel like that, baby. You’re not stupid, you’re very smart, and it’s not your fault that you were afraid. Hopefully this will never happen again, but if it does then just know that you have a right to refuse people who try to make you do something against your will, and you don’t have to feel bad for it.”

Kai sniffled and wiped his nose. Kris discreetly handed him a tissue.

“Can I stay here tonight?” Kai asked.

Suho grinned. “Of course, honey.”

“We need to have a talk with them.”

Kris looked up from his homework and frowned. “I can’t get anything done with you around, you know that?” He grumbled.

Suho ignored him. It had been a week since the incident with Kai and the girl, and three days since the group of travelers had finally cleared out. “We need to talk to the younger kids about consent,” he said urgently, “And . And puberty, I guess.”

“You’re a little late on that last one,” Kris pointed out.

“I know, I procrastinated, but it has to be done,” Suho said with a wave of his hand. “We have to start there if we’re going to end with consent. It’s going to be Kai, Sehun, Tao and Chen, okay?”

That made Kris frown. “Not Chen, he’s not ready for that.”

“Kris…”

“I get Kai and Sehun,” he said firmly, “And I understand Tao. They’re curious, or they have people they love. Chen has no interest in , and I feel like it’s just unnecessary right now. He’s just…he doesn’t need that.”

But Suho had been prepared for this argument. “If you don’t tell him yourself, he’ll hear about it from Kai.”

Kris went absolutely pale. “Okay, let’s round these kids up.”

Suho couldn’t tell if Sehun was genuinely not understanding, or if he was just being thick on purpose because it was making Kai giggle. Not that it was hard, he’d been giggling from the beginning.

“So wait,” Sehun interrupted, “Why does it feel nice? I don’t get it, I touch my arm a lot and that doesn’t feel particularly amazing.”

Kai buried his face in his hands as he exploded into another round of giggles. Tao looked utterly blank, and Chen kept shaking his head, looking close to tears. Maybe Kris was right, maybe they should have left him out of this.

“It’s different for organs,” Kris said bluntly, “It feels different because it’s supposed to encourage reproduction.”

“But if you’re alone, then you’re not reproducing, so what’s the point?”

“Well,” Kris explained, “The human body isn’t that evolved not to respond to its own touch. Like if you accidentally bite your tongue, you didn’t mean to hurt yourself but the fact is that you did, right? Does that make sense?”

Sehun nodded thoughtfully. “I guess. But if that’s how men and women do it, then what’s it like for boys?”

Kai raised his hand. “I know, I know!”

“How do you know?!” Chen and Suho screeched at the same time.

“It’s like—” Kris started, but Chen screamed and covered his ears.

“I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear it!! Ugh, this is so weird!!”

He really looked so uncomfortable, and Suho knew that this was as far as they would go. “Okay,” he and Kris said at the same time.

Chen looked surprised. “Really? That’s it?”

“We’re not done here,” Kris said firmly, “But we’re not going to talk about schematics anymore, if you have questions about that then you can come to us on your own time. We mostly just wanted you guys to know how babies came about.”

Kai looked faintly disappointed, but Suho knew this is the perfect springboard to what he wanted to talk about.

“I want you to realize what just happened. Chen was uncomfortable, and when he asked us to stop, we did.”

The smile slipped off of Kai’s face, but he didn’t look scared, just a little confused. Suho went on. “When you love someone, it’s important to make sure that what happens between the two of you is enjoyable to both of you. If someone is uncomfortable or scared, then it’s not okay to force them to do whatever it is that’s making them scared. We’ve talked about this before, but it’s especially important for and even kissing, because that’s something very intimate and it can be scary. Sometimes you think you’re ready for that kind of intimacy, and it turns out you thought wrong. If that happens then it’s okay to tell your partner that you’re scared, and you want to stop. And if your partner says that to you, then it’s very, very important that you listen to them.”

“This may sound like common sense but sometimes it’s not,” Kris added. “And it’s important to pay attention, too. Sometimes people are too afraid to talk, but you can tell that they’re upset, right? If you can tell that your partner is uncomfortable, then you should back off and make sure they’re alright. Not saying anything doesn’t mean that they’re saying yes. Do you understand? And before you have with someone, you should talk to them about how you feel and what you’re comfortable with.”

“And,” Suho jumped in, “If someone kisses you once, that doesn’t automatically mean that every other kiss after that has to be okay. Even if you’ve been with someone for a long time and kissed them a lot, if there comes a time you feel uncomfortable then you can say no to a kiss. And having once doesn’t mean that you’re automatically comfortable all the time. You can say no to even if it’s not your first time, even if it’s the one thousandth time, if you don’t want to then you don’t have to. And your partner should respect that of you, and you of your partner. Is this all clear?”

Nobody was giggling, nobody looked confused. They all nodded their understanding. When Kris and Suho dismissed them, Kai stayed behind and gave them both a hug. He lingered with Suho for a little bit.

“Thanks, hyung,” he whispered. “I don’t know if I said it but…thanks for helping me.”

Suho got a little teary as he hugged Kai a bit tighter. “Any time, baby.”

Two hours later Sehun showed up at Kris and Suho’s door.

“No seriously,” he said as he marched in, “Explain it to me, how does it work with two guys?”

Kris opened his mouth, and Suho interrupted. “My kid?” He guessed.

Kris shook his head. “No, I’ll help you. I was just about to tell Sehun to have a seat, I have a feeling we’ll be here for a while.”

Suho gave Kris a grateful smile. “At least we’re in it together, right?”

“For better or worse,” Kris sighed as Sehun pulled out a piece of paper and announced that he’d written his questions down.

IDK man I wrote this between 12 and 2 AM. It turned out a bit darker than I had hoped…but I had no control. I WAS TIRED. It's been almost a month since the last update and I really wanted to get something done, so I just wrote all of this in one go. I’m amazed that when I proofread it again this morning there weren’t a whole lot of mistakes.

So leave comments because like I said, I’m keeping track. Since the last update AWE has gotten 25 new subscribers (welcome all of you!!), 2,000 page views and 52 comments. Let’s see if we can break that record between now and the next update! (The Tree only knows when THAT will be)