­­­047. dents; Kai/Tao
Rough.

An exhausted, raspy wince of profanity leaves his lips creating a small cloud from the night’s dropping winter temperature. ‘It hurts to move’- is the first thought that comes to mind the second his mind wakes up from a long, unconscious slumber. With sluggish and heavy blinks, he finally wakes up and observes his surroundings with a groggy accent.

‘Great’, he realizes.

Slumped on the dirty asphalt of a barren sidewalk in the middle of what probably was an hour or two past midnight of some familiar city he barely remembers walking by is what he’d assume was the situation. This wasn’t much a shock for him though, for he’d find himself in these types of situations several times a week. Usually, he’d get up despite any injury he had obtained from what usually was a street fight against drunkards or gangsters, but tonight he literally just couldn’t give a damn about getting home.
 

So he decided to just take another nap.

--

“Hey.”

He felt a warm, yet light tap on the crown of his head. Another faded sound which sounded like a male’s voice saying “excuse me” was then heard along with a stronger jolt this time to his right shoulder. This caused a shock of pain to run through his system and immediately his eyes shot open with a painful grunt.

“F-!” He cried, curling his whole body close for comfort.

“Oh ! Sorry man I didn’t mean to hurt you.” The same sharp voice spoke as the injured boy felt a warm and soft hand caress his chin. It was gentle and light, comforting to the point where he nearly leaned into the stranger’s touch. As the pain subsided, the scrunch in his face loosened which let him open his heavy lidded eyes. 

It was still dark where he was meaning it had still been an ungodly hour in the morning for the stranger was barely decipherable as the light from a nearly dead lamppost only gave him the outline of the now crouching man’s body in front of him. “Are you okay?” Worry was laced within those words and nothing else. However, all that was his response was a slight grunt and a terrible attempt to balance back on his two feet.

“Woah, easy there tiger.” The man chuckled as he helped him get up properly. “What’s your name?”

It was then that the injured man could see his face through the dim yellow post light. He could make out sharp features of the man’s nose and small eyes and lips. Dark liner was traced within his eyes giving an edgier feel and contrasted greatly with his ivory complexion. His charcoal black hair dusted with green streaks- a look opposite to his current character.

Standing still under the support of this man’s arms, he decided it was safe enough to put his trust in this man and spoke softly with a raspy tone.

 

“Kai.”

--

It only took a few steps before Kai managed to regain balance in his step. Clutching his right shoulder and limping rather quickly away from the stranger, who claimed himself to be Tao, he raised his voice. “Leave me alone! I don’t give a damn about these injuries I have.”

“If you took a look at yourself, I think you would.” Tao followed.

This made Kai stop and scoff, turning around with a smirk and letting out another warm cloud into the biting cold air. “Honey, I’ve been through worse.” The weather was sharp and unforgiving at this hour and Kai was barely dressed for the occasion- probably stripped of his jacket when he was assaulted earlier. Currently, he only sported a ripped up black wife beater, black jeans, and worn black boots.

The charcoal haired man sighed. “At least let me take you to the hospital.”

“ off. D-Don’t even bother when I c-can’t even p-pay for my own rent.” He tried hard to not show his slight shivering for temperature was starting to affect him. Tao shook his head and pulled off his own heavy, brown winter coat before laying them on Kai’s shoulders. “I’ll pay, don’t worry.” And as much as Kai wanted to resist as Tao pushed him towards what seemed to be his car, he was just too frozen and injured to try anything. Defeated, Kai only nodded whilst lightly clinging onto the jacket without a word the rest of the ride there.

Since when was the last time someone bothered to help him? Being caught into fights frequently each week, no one ever dared to be of his assistance when he’s left beaten up on the sidewalk or alleyway of some random street. This was probably due to his dark and scary appearance- always fully adorned in black, a long and jagged scar running from under his left eye down to his chin, and cuts and bruises from previous brawls. He probably looked like a lowlife.

Kai never really liked company anyway. The feeling of warmth he received from Tao today would have to be cut short. He’d rather deal with his problems alone.

--

A dislocated right shoulder, bruised ribs, and sprained left ankle left Kai in his current state at the hospital- in an arm sling, wrapped chest, and leg.

“You have a high tolerance for pain.” The doctor expresses with raised eyebrows and an impressed tone. “With this amount of injury, normally patients would be displaying at least some reaction of distress.” The only response Kai could give was a silent tsk along with a side glance. This was nothing.

Upon hearing a lack of response, the doctor cleared his throat. “Very well. You are set to discharge; just be sure to take care of those injuries and change your wrapping every other day. Be sure to not participate in strenuous activities. You can come back for a check-up in a month to take off your ankle brace, but your sling won’t be able to be off for two weeks after that.” As Kai gave a lazy nod, he had lost interest the moment he said discharge, he slowly stood up with little struggle. It was just a leg brace- nothing he couldn’t walk in.

Tao’s folded arms untangled themselves when his eyes noticed the awkwardly walking former turning into the waiting room. Kai held a bored expression as he quickly lumbered past the green haired male. “Let’s go.” He murmured as he exited the double glass doors.

“Don’t worry about payment- I’ve handled it already. “ Tao managed to cough out through the shrill silence inside his Chevy.  “Where do you live?”  He looks up towards the other whose empty glance led out the window. Tao noticed through the glass window behind the other’s head that the sun was slowly starting to rise. And as Kai quietly, and regrettably, uttered his home address, the car engine’s smooth start up littered their ears. Tao’s eyes slightly widened. “That’s pretty far. How’d you end up here?”

Kai shrugged. He had not an ounce of care left in him to explain as he closed his eyes and unintentionally fell asleep.

--

The lightest shake on the shoulder is all it took to wake the injured male. Kai’s broad frame cowered back a bit instinctively before slowly opening his groggy eyes. Seeing this action made Tao’s dark brown gaze soften. He wondered just how many beatings the boy has been through. With the help of his assistance, Tao managed to balance the other into a standing position easily before being shrugged off harshly. “Let me walk you up.” He offered while sparing a weary glance at the rundown apartment building with rickety, old looking stairs that felt like would cave in with the touch of a leaf.

Kai’s tired expression immediately faltered as he put up a tough front again. “Yeah right.” He tsk-ed for the nth time that day, “I can go up myself. I’m not a baby.”

“It isn’t the matter of being a baby. You’re in a leg brace.”

The other was already stalking off. “You don’t see me struggling, do you?” His tone was laced with slight irritation as he walked up the steps with ease, a creaky noise ripping every slow step.

“Wait-,“ The taller ran after slamming the door to the passenger seat of his car. The crinkling of a white paper bag resonated against the creaking of the stairs as he caught up to the other who was frustratingly digging into his pockets for his apartment key. “You forgot your meds.” The sound of tinkling metal was heard once Kai found his key deep in his pocket. He raised a brow. Meds? For what?

Tao took the hint. “A prescription of strong aspirin and extra wrapping for your ribs.”

Kai snatched it quickly without sparing a glance which followed a quiet and stubborn “Thanks.” Quickly shuffling through his apartment door with a rusty placard with a number “88” scratched onto it, he slammed the door after hurriedly turning around and facing his savior for the night. “I appreciate the help. It was a onetime thing so let’s forget we ever met.” He said with squinting, red eyes as the daylight was starting to creep up.

Tao blinked as he stood in front of the apartment door.

 

He had a feeling they’d meet again.

--

Kai stumbled into his apartment soon after he slammed the door with a harsh lock. His tough façade quickly faded into complete fatigue as he fell face flat onto his couch, and groaned at the pain that shot up his right shoulder and sore ribs immediately after. Smart move.

He checked the time on the wall clock across the room reading ‘6:12 AM’. He had another couple hours to doze off before heading to work.

--

Letting out a scoff as he picked up the crumpled scrap of paper on the floor near his door, Kai brushed his hair with his left hand as he sighed at the number messily scrawled on the paper along with the small note- ‘Call me if you need me.- Tao.’ He looked up and crumpled the paper in his right hand before letting out another scoff. Who was he to leave a number when he said to forget they ever met? His gaze then slowly landed upon the hefty, brown winter coat sprawled on his black couch. …Tao probably had various other jackets if he could afford the medicine for him.

 

Besides, even if he wanted to land a call he didn’t have a phone.

 

Pulling off the sling on his arm and leg brace, Kai changed into his work clothes- a white button up with folded sleeves, black ripped skinny jeans, and his charcoal boots. His eyes still resembled tiredness with its unfading red color for he was barely able to catch a wink of good sleep as he was awoken often by jolts of pain whenever he shifted positions and loud noises of daytime squalor outside his apartment caused by passing neighbors.

The clink of pills rattling within his prescription bottle sounded as he swallowed a couple more- perhaps hours too early for his next dosage, but Kai couldn’t help it. Though he fronted the pain, it was actually tearing up his tolerance. Wiping his face with both hands to hopefully brush off the pain, confusion crossed his face as he pulled his hands back with the slightest streak of blood suddenly graced across his fingers. Scurrying for the mirror in his bathroom, he noticed a vertical cut on his cheek, fresh and bleeding. As it lie thin, tiny, red and glistening, his other cheek held an opposite image with its dull, matte and deep gray scar littering practically half his face. Wincing as he washed the red away, he figured out how it happened- his ring placed on his right hand middle finger grazed too deeply as he wiped his face. As for his scar, he brushed the memories aside.

Just what he needed.

--

Placing on a black apron, Kai started wiping the counter of spilled alcohol and drool from knocked out customers. A bartender at a fairly generic bar was his full time. The job paid enough to barely afford his ty apartment making it worth the arguments against the bar’s rude and crappy customers.

Besides, he had privilege to free refreshments when he wanted to get wasted- not that he was a big drinker.

“One more beer!” A middle aged man yelled across the bar as Kai walked to the back to restock on clean mugs. Hearing the roar had him shuffling faster to get back and retrieve the man’s order, however not a second later the man screeched again. “Hey! Where’s the service here?! I asked for another beer, bastards!” His hoarse and obvious smoker voice belched throughout the tiny bar. Being the only private bar in the town, Kai was the only bartender and he sighed at the thought of dealing with another drunkard customer. He quickly ran out the double doors with his tray of clear beer mugs all neatly stacked into a tall wall and set them on the counter in front of the cranky man. It was fairly easy to tell who it was since he kept yelling curse words at the service he was getting.

“Sorry for the delay sir. One beer you said?” Kai tried his best to hold his oncoming temper as he forced a slight smile. His half-lidded, red eyes said otherwise.

“Bastard! You made me wait for so ing long even though there’s barely a damn soul in here!” The old man raised his nearly empty beer mug a hair’s inch close to Kai’s face. “I demand an extra free mug just for the wait.” He spat confidently before taking the last swig of his drink and slamming it on the table.

The drunken words of the old man made Kai’s eye twitch as he took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes. “I’m sorry sir, we can’t give you a free mug- the wait was only a couple of seconds.” I had to restock the beer mugs because you keep ing using them all. His words sent the man aflame as he stood up whilst slamming his dirty palms onto the counter creating the loudest thud to echo throughout the bar. Kai couldn’t even comprehend what the latter was saying due to the copious amounts of profanities he used and the loud screeching in his ear when he was only a couple inches from the man’s face.

However, he was brought back when the man decided to cross the line and tickle the little patience he had with a simple remark. “-ard! Trying to save all the beer to yourself, huh?! The ugly scar on your face says it all- you’re probably a good for nothing lowlife-“ Kai’s eyes fluttered open upon the remark regarding his scar. “-who probably got it from fighting in the streets with gangsters and other lowlifes and uses this job to drink your sad, pathetic life away!” The man laughed in his own amusement- now grabbing the attention of the few customers residing in the same building.

Ohhhhho, that was it. Call him a bastard. Call him a . Call him a lowlife- but do not mess with his scar.

That was crossing his sensitive line.

Fire reflected in Kai’s tired eyes as his left fist retracted far from his head, ready to bash the drunk bastard in as he kept rambling about his deep scar. Tears started to water in his eyes as he swung forward not caring if he was fired at this point. The punch landed and knocked the man back, stumbling over the bar stool and onto the floor- obviously packing a big blow as the man held his right cheek with blood spewing out his lips.

The man immediately got up and flared as he picked up a mug from the clean tray Kai just brought out and chucked it at Kai’s head. Wincing and thanking that it was just thick plastic material, the wall of mugs on the tray collapsed in front of him as the man swiped them all off the counter and towards him. “You want to fight, huh?! You lowlife let’s see how you fight then.” He gave a drunken smirk. “Let’s take this outside. Right now.” He pointed towards the door, staggering and swaying.

And of course, Kai wasn’t stupid to join a dumb fight outside during his shift, but his coworker, Xiumin, in the back immediately popped his head out. “Kai!” He hissed. “You better ing fix this mess you made right now before the manager finds out about it.” Rolling his eyes, Kai heaved a loud grunt of distress as he massaged his temple surely starting to bruise from the beer mug as he walked out slamming the counter door. “You better take care of the counter while I’m out then!” He yelled and wiped the stray tears that trickled down his cheeks.

Upon walking outside, Kai couldn’t even blink as he felt a blow land on his stomach. He hunched over clutching his abdomen with an ‘ack!’ He could hear the man’s maniac laughing as he felt blows to his face in his time of weakness. One, two, three, he couldn’t count with the low recovery time he had as he tumbled to the ground in pain. The man resorted to kicking in which the ground was filled with shards of glass from broken beer bottles throughout the street.

Kai didn’t work in the safest city.

Glass dug itself through his thin dress shirt and into his injured shoulder as the man continued to kick at the same spot, his kicks getting stronger as he heard Kai’s moans of pain increase louder and louder. He was continually scratched in his arms and face from being dragged on the rocky cement scattered with traces of glass filaments. It didn’t help he was being mentally pulled back to the past over the remark of his scar.

Black spot started to blotch his vision and the painful, slurred remarks against him from his attacker’s livid voice started to fade. That was before it stopped altogether as he heard a thud presuming the man had fallen to the ground. Kai slowly tried to unfold his curled position to see what happened as the hits ceased, but his vision out before he could lift his head. Cut, bruised, broken, and bleeding, Kai lay lifeless in the streets once again at a late hour.

 

”Tsk, why am I finding you like this again?”

--

Tao sighed as he stared at the limp and nearly lifeless body lying on his bed’s white sheets. Kai’s facial expression looked so peaceful despite his sun-kissed skin being littered with cuts and purplish bruises starting to form around his cheeks and forehead. Sitting on the side of the bed, Tao leaned in slowly and studied the latter’s face. Forehead down- how his thick eyebrows curved above his eyes. How his long and uncurled eyelashes stood out and covered his dark eye bags. How his large, but round button nose crinkled occasionally. How his thin, rosy lips rested comfortably- slightly open for breathing. And how his long and deep scar drew its way from under his left eye down to his chin in a frantic manner.

There was something about this boy that made Tao want to take care of him. Protect him. Cradle him away from all the danger the latter seemed to attract. Frankly, he was becoming fond of Kai despite their short meeting just a couple hours before. He wanted to know everything about the other male.

Grabbing a damp and warm towel, Tao lightly wiped the small amounts of blood that spewed from the various cuts littered on the boy’s dark and smooth skin. Upon reaching the face, his free hand slowly lingered and cupped Kai’s left cheek, thumb gently tracing the jagged scar. Upon this action, Kai’s eyebrows furrowed a bit and he wiggled his body to lean on his left shoulder as he slowly opened his eyes stumbling back a bit at his face’s close proximity to the others’. “Morning sleepyhead.” Tao muttered quietly with a small smile as the latter winced at his sudden action.

He was immediately met with a tired glare. “I thought I told you to forget we met.” His voice was hoarse from his dry throat. Tao handed over a glass of water as he assisted Kai to sit up on his bed. Tao chuckled, “It doesn’t seem like you forgot me either, though.” The latter rolled his eyes and looked away at the retort with a loss of words.

Tao stood up and walked into a nearby room, leaving Kai alone to study the room he was in. Guessing this was Tao’s room, he noticed the modern styling of the apartment- it felt cozy and comfortable despite its spacious layout. Completely different from Kai’s rundown dump of a place. He noticed the glass desk and black, leather office chair across the room set with a big screen computer and drawing tablet. The desk held litters of post it notes and papers that looked like blueprints. On the walls were framed pieces of colorful digital art all deriving of the same art style. Kai never really paid attention to art, but he judged them to be fairly well done. Tao must like this artist very much. He wondered as each of the room’s four walls were littered neatly with frames of them.

“You like the art pieces?” Tao’s voice surged through the closed room as he emerged from what seemed to be the bathroom judging by the first aid kit in his hands and the sound of a distant flush of the toilet. Kai made no attempt to answer the question as he watched him sit in front of him on the bed placing down the first aid kit. Tao was in a white wife beater and dark grey sweatpants- his eyeliner wiped off showing his eyes to be smaller than Kai remembered. He paid close attention as he saw Tao move closer with a cotton tip dipped in an antibiotic ointment. The man sure worked out judging by his ripped arm muscles. Kai was well aware he was checking the other out and didn’t heed to stop.

“Well?” The sharp voice butted into his thoughts once again, snapping out of his gaze. He grunted in confusion and stared back at Tao’s eyes. The older stopped applying ointment on the various cuts as he leaned back. “My art pieces. You like them?”

Kai felt flustered, a bit taken aback. “T-those are your pieces?” His eyes were slightly widened. The latter only nodded with a smug smile getting the impression that his work was impressive.

“I’m a freelance graphic designer. Pretty popular actually. You know the billboards for the popular amusement park SMWORLD? Yeah I contributed to a lot of those and their merchandise designs.” His tone of voice was confident and proud, it made Kai slip a small laugh.

“You’re so full of yourself.” He smiled a painful side smile. He must have been hit near his mouth. “I admit though, you’re pretty good.” The older gave his thanks as he continued to apply more ointment to the cuts on his face. Kai didn’t even wince.

“Now that you know a bit of myself, why don’t you tell me something about you?”

“Like what? You already know where I work obviously.” He gave a scoff.

“Well, anything. Age? Family? Interests...Preferences?” The green haired man paused. “Ah. Let me get ice for your bruises first. Don’t you dare move.” He bolted out the room and quickly came back with a dosage of aspirin and several ice packs wrapped in towels. Kai gratefully swallowed the pills as Tao lie the ice packs on several places of his bruising body. “Your answer?” He said curiously as he worked on caring for the boy.

“19. I have no family- I’m disowned. Interests…mm I don’t really have any since I don’t have time for any… and preference?” Kai huffed in amusement. “…Gay.”

Tao hid his bemused smirk upon hearing the answer he had hoped for.

 

“Good. Because I didn’t plan on forgetting you anytime soon.”

--

Word Count: 4,058

Date finished: 16.07.10; 1:40AM

a/n;
ayo so this is going to have to be a two-shot. I’m making a new story for all of these chapters probably LOL. This is to keep the challenge, but they’re also stories- especially this one omg its so long. (for me writing at least- i know it’s not a lot to read AHAH im working on it.) –BVJL7

 

 

LINK TO THE STORY IF YOU WANNA READ THE EXTENSION OF IT.