Dax

I stood, alone, staring into the sky.

The balcony that fed into the grand library had always been my favorite place to sit in peace, and now it had become the meeting point for whenever Kai arrived in Madeo. He would always run up to the balcony as fast as he could once my father had amply distracted his own, and sit with me for hours on end, simply basking in the company of one another. It became tradition to gaze at the stars, backs on the cool stone.

I sat down on the ground, pushing my legs through the bars that held up the railing and let my feet dangle above the nightlife.

Ever since the year before, Kai and I had become inseparable whenever he would visit Madeo, and even with me at 15 and him at 14, we still were the best of friends. He would always poke fun at me, calling me 'old' while I shoved him around and called him 'little'. It was peaceful. It was happy.

"Dax." A quiet voice called out, sounding almost relieved.

I quickly turned to see Kai walking towards me. His dark hair had only grown longer since the last time I had seen him, and I was sure Bartram was beyond livid that Kai had refused to allow anyone to trim it. He was positively unruly when it came to his hair.

I jumped to my feet and wrapped my arms around him.

I began to open my mouth to tell him all about the past 2 weeks without him, but he flinched and backed away from my grasp.

"A-Are you alright?" I whispered, taking a step away from him for fear I had done something wrong.

He crossed him arms over his chest and looked at the ground.

"I'm fine. Just..." He trailed off and tentatively brought his eyes to meet mine, "just please don't hug me."

I nodded, but I remained just as confused as I had began and I couldn't help but to feel hurt by his words. Had I done something wrong to him in just the few moments he had been with me? Had someone told him some monstrous falsehood pertaining to me and he believed it? Was it possible that he had only come up here to profess his true feelings of me and then promptly leave me and my odd obsessions to fend for themselves?

"Have I done something wrong, Kai?" I asked quietly, afraid of the answer I would recieve.

"No!" He exclaimed quickly, but realized just how loud he had spoken. "I meant, no, you have done nothing wrong to me."

I looked to the side.

"Why is it that you won't let me hug you, then?"

Kai took a long, frustrated breath before speaking again.

"Because I do not want you to hug me. It is as simple as that."

We stood in an awkward silence, the air hanging between us as if it were a wet cloth, suffocating us.

Why was he being so cold and dismissive of my concerns? For a moment it seemed as if he worried for my fear of having done something to upset him, but that melted away quickly. Possibly something had happened to him physically and he was simply in pain. That made sense to me, but what could he have possibly been doing? Kai doesn't ride horseback or run outside often. So how, if it had been something physical, did he injure himself so much that he would flinch at my touch? Unless..

Unless he truly wasn't exaggerating when he told me just how cruel his father could be.

"Kai, are you hurt?" I asked him gently, reaching my hand out to touch his shoulder.

He ripped his body away from my touch and planted his feet.

"I'm fine. Just drop it." He sighed. "Please."

"If you are hurt, my father has his personal physician we can consult. His chamber is just down the hall." I spoke quickly and grabbed his hand to lead him there, but he jerked it out of my grip.

"Dax, drop it. Now."

He gave me a cold look with tired eyes, begging me to leave the issue.

So I did, for the most part.

"Fine. I will let it go. Let's just get inside." I spoke in finality.

Kai followed close behind me as I walked down the halls that led to my chamber. The air filled with heavy silence that only broke with the sound of our feet slapping against the floor.

Every now and again, I could hear him take a heavy breath, so I would slow my pace to allow him to catch his breath in peace, never saying a word.

I swung the heavy door to my chamber open and entered with a sigh as I flopped my body onto my bed. It had been a long day of lessons with my father and private tutor, so sitting around with Kai, doing nothing sounded like heaven itself.

I lifted my head off the pillow and glanced behind me to see Kai pulling off his shoes as gently as possible at the foot of the bed.

"Whenever you're done you should come up here. I've been lonely." I told him before dropping my face back into the soft pillow.

He didn't respond, but I took the bed dipping beside me as his confirmation.

Kai laid next to me, his leg slung over my back and his lips against my temple. I was still upset at him, but not nearly enough to push him away.

"I've missed you." I whispered, turning my head to face him. "Everything is boring without you here."

He smiled and brushed hairs out of my eyes. "Trust me, if I could stay here all the time, I would. In a heartbeat."

I started to roll onto my side so I could throw an arm across his waist and pull him into my chest, but I froze when he hissed at the touch.

"I'm sorry." I said, pulling away from him.

He shook his head. "No, no, go ahead."

"Are you sure?" I asked him gently. "I know you don't want talk about it, but I am not dumb. I know you are hurt and I don't want to hurt you any more."

"I'm sure. I swear."

So I gently laid my arm across his waist, pausing for a moment as he squeezed his eyes shut and flinched.

I held still and waited before I fully relaxed with him against my chest.

"Kai, I know you told me to let it be, but I'm begging you, what's wrong? Why are you hurting?" I whispered above his ear, holding him close.

He sighed and pulled away from my grasp, sitting up in the bed across from me.

"You have to swear that you won't say or do anything to anyone, if I show you. Do you understand?"

I sat up and nodded.

"I swear."

Kai took the hem of his shirt between his fingers and tugged it above his head as gently as he could manage.

I could feel tears welling in my eyes once he removed the cloth.

Angry bruises covered his torso, turning his skin shades of yellow, brown, and purple. Some fed underneath the waist-band of his pants, telling me that it was quite possible most of his body resembled this.

"What happened?" I whispered, reaching out to gently touch the sore bruises.

He sucked in a breath as my hand came into contact with his skin, tracing the large areas of discoloration with light strokes of my finger. Tears streamed down my cheeks the longer I stared at the mess of colors that covered his skin.

I jerked my hand away.

"Please, Kai. What happened?"

He began to shake, as if he were reliving the experience of earning the marks.

I cupped his cheeks and swiped tears from his skin as they fell.

"Kai, please" I whispered, crying alongside him. Our combined tears fell onto my bed and soaked the blanket below us.

He leaned forward, buried his head into the crook of my neck, and sobbed violently. It was as if his whole body shook with every gasp for air he took.

"Dax, some days I wake up and I wonder what makes this life worth living. My father manages to create my own hells within my home and forces me to deal with it all on my own." He gripped my shirt between his fingers and held tight. "You're the only thing that makes any of this worth living through."

"I will forever be here for you." I found myself whispering in his ear. It was spoken so quietly, it felt so intimate to promise.

Kai stayed quiet, holding me to his body as if his father would come in and rip me away from him too. I ran my fingers through his hair, doing my best to comfort him.

"I will always do everything in my power to protect you, now and forever. Nothing will come between us, and if Bartram ever pulls me away from you, I will wait every night for you." I paused for a moment, squeezing his shaking body. "I will love you from now to the end of time."

"Don't promise that, Dax." He spoke against the skin at my neck. "Don't make promises that you can't keep."

"You're right." I said and pulled him off me so I could look into his eyes. "I swear it. I swear it on my life that I will love you until the day I die."

Kai smiled. His face broke out into the brightest grin I had ever seen, though tears still streamed down his freckled cheeks.

"I love you too, Dax."

"Now and forever?" I asked him, returning the smile.

"Without a doubt."