Chapter Text
Unknown Number
Today
Sorry to bother you. But I need your help. 13:55
Who is this? 13:57
It's a little hard to explain. 13:57
But I think the easiest way to help you understand is to ask you a question first. 13:57
Do you remember The Hollow? 13:57
Adam was still staring at his phone two hours later. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten a weird message about The Hollow, but they'd petered out, mostly, by the time he'd left for college. He'd never figured out how to deal with the - fans, or whatever. He couldn't match Mira's level of indifference, or Kai, whose enthusiasm had managed to scare a few of them off. Mostly he'd made a few awkward replies until the questions got intrusive and then blocked them. Part of the problem was how little he wanted to talk about the last game he'd played, which was all anyone wanted to talk about.
(That wasn't true - they wanted to talk about the game after that, but Adam didn't know anything more than what everyone else who'd watched the last game knew.)
And that, maybe, was his out.
Unknown Number
Today
Look, I just played the game. I didn't have anything to do with - whatever happened. 16:05
I know that. 16:06
Better than most. 16:06
I'm not here to talk about that game. 16:06
But it's easier to explain if you remember the game. 16:07
So. 16:07
Do you? 16:07
Adam stared at the messages. Something about the text made his chest twitch anxiously, like - when Kai made him watch badly-written horror movies where he knew what would happen and still ended up hiding his face against Kai's shoulder so he didn't have to see the characters' clearly-telegraphed doom.
Unknown Number
Today
Yeah. What...does this have to do with you? 16:10
Do you remember the last game? 16:10
The Hollow went on hiatus right after that - to 'work out some bugs'. Before they could come back, Hollow Games declared bankruptcy. 16:10
...Gustaf? 16:11
No. 16:12
My name is Adam Luna. 16:13
"What. The. Fuck," Adam announced to his dorm room.
He shut his phone off rather than risk any further exchanges with the freakshow, or, worse, let something slip that made it easier to find him (although it was probably too late for that, given this stalker already had Adam's number). He resolved not to think about it, a plan that worked so well that when he woke up the next morning, he couldn't remember why he'd turned his phone off in the first place.
It left him with two text messages from Mira, who figured he'd gotten distracted or gone to sleep early, some dozen other texts from other friends, including a reminder about pub night he'd missed, and twenty from Kai. And a voicemail - he hadn't been aware Kai knew how to leave voicemails. He felt a smile tug at the edge of his mouth as he scrolled through the messages. He used to think Kai was clingy - he'd responded to the invitation to join their team with endless strings of texts to the group chat, requests to hang out that got more desperate if Adam or Mira didn't respond to them, and an off-putting tendency to agree with anything they said. Adam had begun to believe whatever he'd actually liked about Kai had been a product of the mind-wipe, like Mira's brief flirtation with - well, Adam.
He knew better, now, and Kai knew that sending three texts to Adam's one wasn't a sign of any secret resentment. Twelve hours of unexpected radio silence was concerning, though.
It was eight in the morning when Adam called back - a little early for Kai to be awake, but the least he could do was leave an actual message so Kai knew he wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere. If Kai had answered on the first ring, Adam would have been certain Kai had stayed up all night panicking. Luckily, he picked up on the third, suggesting he'd been asleep and decided talking to Adam was worth forcing himself up for.
"Adam? Buddy? You alright?" He sounded - well, worried. Adam pushed aside a twinge of guilt.
"What? Yeah," Adam replied. "Sorry - I was trying to shut everything out last night. Shut my phone off. Finals, you know." He had made good progress on the latest revision of his thesis, and his second-to-last round of studying.
"Huh, yeah," Kai said, an odd note to his voice.
"Are you alright?" Adam asked. He checked Kai's messages, finding no suggestion of any distress.
"Oh - yeah," Kai murmured, voice a little distant. "Just, you're graduating soon."
"Hopefully, yeah," Adam said.
"And you've got that internship," Kai added.
"Yeah, in - oh." Adam had heard back about the internship a week ago, and Kai had seemed happy then - but Adam knew him well enough by now to have expected a delayed freak-out. It was Adam and Mira leaving for college all over again. "It's not like I won't have time to talk to you," he said. "It's a job, not prison."
"...I guess," Kai said, if a little doubtfully.
Adam frowned at the far wall of his room, rubbing at his chest, which felt a little fluttery, lost. He hated trying to navigate these talks about feelings, which usually left him feeling nearly as out of his depth as waking up in an empty room with no memory had.
"You're - we're friends, Kai," Adam tried. "You're a cool guy, and we spend most of our time talking online anyway, so what does it matter if I live-"
"A four and a half hour drive away," Kai supplied, with the speed of someone who'd been thinking about that number a lot.
Adam closed his eyes, biting back a sigh. This was clearly going to be a thing, and he couldn't even argue he wasn't worried about it. Not the physical distance, but the metaphorical distance; there was a divide between college and the real world that felt more solid - wider - than the one between high school and college. And reassuring Kai had never done much for his nerves. The whole question might be something they just had to ride out.
Still, it didn't mean Adam couldn't try to reassure Kai (and him, a little) that they were good enough friends to weather a little distance.
"You know, if I buckle down and work on my papers, I can get everything but some last-minute studying done and we can have a movie weekend, like old times."
"Huh," Kai mused. "Yeah, that sounds cool. Some choice movies, popcorn, pretzels, beer?"
"You're nineteen," Adam retorted. "I'm not buying you beer."
"My roommate thinks it's a waste I've got a twenty-one-year-old friend if he won't buy me beer," Kai complained.
"I'm not-" Adam started, biting at his lip as he considered his response. He knew Kai was technically an adult, and in any case had at fourteen helped rescue Adam from a tribe of mutant spiders, but it didn't erase Adam's unease when Kai talked about stuff like this - alcohol and drugs and sex - the sort of things that could lead to a sheltered, sweet kid getting hurt because he hoped for the best in people.
"I tell him you're my friend because you're cool, not to get free booze," Kai said, a steady - proud - tone to his voice.
"Why am I giving you free alcohol in this scenario anyway?" Adam demanded.
"Because you always spring for the snacks on movie night," Kai replied - Adam could almost see his shrug.
And it was true - Kai might pay when they went out to the movies, concerts, the infamous Robots Versus Wrestlers event, but Adam always bought the snacks for movie weekends. He couldn't explain why - Kai could sure as hell afford it, and Adam wasn't about to feel guilty helping Kai mooch off his parents. Just - when Kai, or Mira, or Adam's college friends, came over, it felt right making sure they were taken care of.
"Well, you shouldn't be drinking anyway," Adam said. He held his breath a moment - it was a point of contention with Mira (and, ages ago, Reeve) that he was bossy, controlling, acting like everyone's business was his business. But - Kai was the sort of person who could get in trouble if they drank carelessly.
"I know that, dude," Kai replied, cheerfully. "You said, my first week. I had like - one drink during orientation. I got a little fuzzy and figured I do not need to be, you know, fuzzy, without someone I trust to look out for me."
"O - oh." It was a strange word to use, 'fuzzy', because Adam felt a little fuzzy at Kai's declaration. "That's pretty - smart of you."
"Your idea, dude," Kai said. "So. Movie weekend?"
"Of course," Adam replied. "Now, I need breakfast."
"Ugh," Kai said. "I'll pass. See you at like - lunch or dinner or Wednesday."
"Yeah," Adam agreed.
"Love you, dude."
"Ah. Love you, too," Adam said. That had been a shock the first time he'd said it, but Kai wasn't shy about telling his friends he loved them, and it had been impossible to claim Adam didn't feel the same.
Breakfast was a quiet affair. Adam had missed pub night, but his college friends hadn't, and they preferred peaceful meals to weather their hangovers. Jesse spent the entire meal sprawled next to his tray, nibbling on slices of bacon between low groans. Xiao nursed a glass full of what Adam had once confirmed was mostly full of raw eggs. And Riordan, who had likely matched the other two drink-for-drink, was reading - homework, Adam guessed.
"You're a mutant," Jesse grumbled. "Some sort of hydration-based superpower that keeps you from getting hangovers."
"I drank a glass of water between every shot," Riordan said absently, "and woke up every hour to drink more."
"You're a mutant," Jesse repeated. "You have some sort of weird ability to remain responsible even after six shots of Snake Juice."
"Perhaps," Riordan agreed, swiping at his phone.
"I hate you," Jesse muttered. "You and your stupid mutant foresight."
Riordan just hummed in response.
"What are you even reading?" Jesse asked. "Classes are over."
"And I've got a thesis on intellectual property rights to finish, or they won't give me this thing called my 'diploma'," Riordan said.
"Some of us finished those last month," Xiao said.
"Some of us are studying evolving fields," Riordan retorted. "Or did they discover a new time signature in the last week?"
Xiao flipped him off, downing the rest of her drink in the same motion, before she rose to her feet. "I'm getting a bowl of ice cream, because this is the last time in my life I'm going to be able to have ice cream for breakfast."
"So...intellectual property rights?" Adam asked.
"More or less," Riordan said. "I mean, I'm writing about the use of software in the protection of intellectual property rights. In the olden days, companies like Google, Amazon, and Disney used bots to automatically make claims against websites hosting content that violated their intellectual property rights. Nowadays, a bunch of people are suing the HLN Group for using bots to take down that content themselves. The District Courts are divided about whether the Fifth Amendment protects you from corporations, so you can imagine the debates going on now."
He swiped at his phone again, sticking his tongue out at it, and Adam frowned at Riordan. As Adam was studying neither technology nor law, he had no actual idea, but he knew the signs of a conversation that would lead to a lecture if he asked for more information.
"So why'd you bail on pub night?" Jesse mumbled. "Hot date?"
"No?" Adam replied. "I turned off my phone to get some work done."
"We are here for like two more weeks and you're studying?" Jesse demanded. "What a waste. I made out with - well, someone, last night, because this is our last chance for this sort of thing." He reached out a hand across the table to take Adam's, twisting his head around to offer a wide-eyed look that usually prefaced an attempt to get his friends to do something they had zero interest in.
"Put those away," Xiao muttered as she sat next to Jesse. "I have nightmares about green puppy-dog eyes."
"But Xiao," Jesse wheedled. "Adam is wasting the best years of his life!"
"Hey, just because I decided to get work done instead of make out with random people-"
"Not random people," Riordan said. "Ikram, my Statistical Methods TA."
"Anyway, that was sophomore year," Adam continued. "I'm trying to mellow out here."
"You're not going to get anywhere, Jess," Riordan added. "Adam's trying to set a good example for Edvard."
Jesse raised his head from the table, and one eyebrow. "Edvard? Are you making new friends we don't know about?"
"No, Riordan is a pretentious ass," Xiao muttered, kicking Riordan under the table. "He's talking about Kai."
"Ahh," Jesse said, letting his head fall back down to the table, reaching out to pat Adam's hand. "Your padawan."
"My what?" Adam asked, narrowing his eyes at Jesse, who was tilting his coffee cup in an ill-advised attempt to drink from it without raising his head from the table. Adam couldn't be sure Jesse wasn't making some sort of weird joke, making any inquiry into what he meant a risky endeavor.
"Padawan," Jesse repeated. "His guide, mentor, teacher."
Xiao wrinkled her face, kicking Jesse, if his yelp was any indication. "Stop being weird," she said. "They're gaming buddies from high school, and Adam's looking out for him. It's sweet."
"All I know is dire threats were made about what would happen if I even thought about hooking up with him," Jesse complained. "And I have it on good authority I am missing out."
"Dire threats were made about what would happen if you hooked up with him and ghosted him when you got bored of him, instead of telling him it's over," Riordan corrected. "You decided that was too onerous of a requirement to bother."
"Anyway," Adam said, cutting through the impending debate (and ignoring the implications of the fact that Jesse had heard enough about Kai that he considered it a loss he'd never had a chance to hook up with him), "I've got a pretty full week trying to get stuff done, and plans next weekend, but I promise we'll get in pub night before - well, graduation, at least."
"At least tell me those plans involve a hot date," Jesse pleaded.
"It's, um, movie weekend," Adam replied. "With Kai."
"God, you're hopeless," Jesse retorted. "Movie nights are for boring married couples or depressed dudes. We are still in the prime of our lives - we should be living it up."
"A single game of The Hollow can last up to seven days," Riordan said, voice mild. "The players retain all memories of their experiences. There are several well-known psychological effects found among those who played it regularly. Post-traumatic stress, difficulty in integrating your in-game thoughts to your core identity, ongoing delusions. The most common effect, however, is an accelerated maturation. From what he's told us, Adam has experienced two years of life more than the rest of us - and those two years were...exciting. It isn't unusual for someone with those sorts of experiences to seek a lifestyle absent that sort of excitement. How many dragons have you killed in your lifetime, Adam?"
"...Sixteen?" Adam guessed.
Riordan gave Jesse a brief smile - close-mouthed, but his eyes, hazel-brown under the cafeteria's lights, were narrow, dull. "So," he said.
Jesse sighed, giving Riordan an exaggerated frown. "Fine. I am sorry I implied you're boring for thinking you've had enough excitement in your life."
"People who played The Hollow tend to be close to their teams," Xiao added. "So it's no wonder he warned you off Kai."
"He didn't warn me off Miranda," Jesse complained.
"Mira," Adam said, "can take care of herself."
Adam had exaggerated his lack of availability for the week; he hated nothing more than to overcommit and be forced to cancel plans with friends. So there were breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with some mixture of his friends in between classes. The few times both Jesse and Kai were around, Adam watched them, and found despite Jesse's overdramatic declarations, he wasn't harboring a deep desire to pursue Kai (Adam wouldn't mind, except that Jesse was careless with people's feelings, sometimes).
Adam and Riordan were at dinner alone Thursday evening when Adam said, "Did you ever play The Hollow? You seem to know a lot about it."
"My mother is a computer engineer," Riordan replied; he was silent a moment, during which Adam wondered if Riordan considered his reply sufficient. "She believed the consequences of device failure outweighed the minimal risks."
"The consequences?" Adam peered at Riordan, whose hand was tight around his fork. Tense. "Didn't the game - back up your brain or something, in case things went wrong?"
"The software did create a digital replica of your memories and personality," Riordan replied. "But if the system failed, the copy is what would survive. Not you."
"That's...huh." There was, Adam was sure, a thesis-level discussion they could have about this, but Adam was involved in one thesis paper already. And thinking about something going wrong reminded Adam of - the thing that went wrong. Gustaf had insisted they'd been in no real danger (The Hollow game show loved rolling out new content, so the fact Adam had never encountered the glitch in prior games was no indication), but the fear of glitching, of what could have happened, still crept up on Adam in odd moments.
"But you watched The Hollow, I guess, right?"
"Every episode," Riordan replied. "Even the unaired pilot with Onni Hiltunen as the host."
"Wha - who?"
"The internet celebrity Wumskee," Riordan said. "People protested Hollow Games giving him a platform because of his purportedly racist views. Also, he was a lot creepier than Gustaf Mardh."
"Gusta - you mean Weirdie?"
Riordan nodded quickly. "He actually ran a technology blog; he was one of the safety consultants on the show before they asked him to run a test game."
"So you…" Adam drummed at the table with his fingers a moment, considering how to ask the question. Riordan was rarely this animated, so it was hard to know how to respond. "You saw the games I played in."
"Of course."
"You never asked about it."
Riordan shrugged. "I overheard someone asking you about The Hollow during orientation and you said you didn't want to talk about it."
"That's - you could have asked me. After we'd been friends a while, at least," Adam said. Riordan shrugged again, but didn't otherwise reply. Adam bit his lip, trying to consider a follow up to that as Riordan delved back into his macaroni. "Were there any questions you did want to ask me?"
"Was the glitch real?" Riordan asked. "I wouldn't expect Hollow Games to acknowledge something happened during the game that endangered the contestants, but they went bankrupt so soon after your game, and there was a glitch in the next game…"
"I've never been sure one way or another," Adam replied. He offered Riordan a smile he hoped came across as apologetic. "Weir - Gustaf told us it was part of the show, but...I still have bad dreams about it." He looked over at Riordan, who was frowning at his food, biting at his upper lip. "I'm sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear."
"I wanted to hear your thoughts," Riordan said, clicking his tongue. "You told them to me." He was quiet a moment. "Some people thought you hacked into the game to mess with the next teams of players."
"We didn't," Adam replied. "I actually - was taking a break from playing after our last game. I didn't even see it until the first time someone started grilling me about it." As a veteran player of The Hollow, Adam had a lot of strange experiences, but none quite as surreal as watching himself doing something he had no memory of. Of course, it wasn't him, but Adam, like most frequent players of The Hollow, had integrated enough memories with recordings of his avatar that thinking of it as him was automatic. He didn't engage with the people who quizzed him about their preferred conspiracy theory, because he couldn't divorce himself from the avatar they thought was a CIA bot. "I don't have any answers."
"There's compelling evidence Hollow Games was using their brain scans to experiment with virtual intelligence and used your data to generate an unexpected obstacle that could act almost like a real opponent. There's no mystery."
"You can say that, but everyone's got their own idea of what happened. Aliens, government experiments, and of course, a weird prank me and my friends were playing. Why would we even team up with Vanessa and her crew? She's a sociopath - she decided the whole thing was a game and tried to kill Kai."
"But...it was a game," Riordan said. "You weren't in any danger."
"Yeah, but - how sure would you have to be that you're in a game before you'd try to kill someone?" Adam demanded. He'd had little trouble letting go of the antagonism of the game, realizing that the stress of it pushed people to act in strange ways, but he'd never met anyone who'd gone from zero to murder so quickly. When they'd shaken hands at the end of the game, he'd tried to see some hint of regret in the way she'd looked at Kai, but had seen nothing except the fake grace of people pretending to be okay they'd lost.
"I haven't thought about that much," Riordan said. He rose to look at Adam, hazel eyes steady, assessing. "Edvard thawed them out in that cave. I remember you being against it."
It wasn't quite a judgment, wasn't quite an accusation of hypocrisy, but it left Adam cold, off-balance. He'd thought of it differently, of keeping them out of the way, not sure it was a game, but sure that the world they were in was strange, that maybe the Weird Guy would help them. "I-"
"The general consensus was that you won because she kept her team on a tight leash and you - negotiated."
"We argued," Adam corrected.
"Vanessa didn't allow disagreement. You did. Most people agreed you still would have won if you'd led her team, instead. She would have refused to listen to Miranda and bullied Kai. You had already proven your ability to work with Reeve, and Bernard was similar to Edvard." Riordan smiled at Adam, a quirk of his lips. "Your personality, I think, lends credence to the theory that your avatars that interfered in the next game were a virtual intelligence obstacle - they worked very well together in the final battle."
"Huh," Adam mused. It didn't erase the vague worry that he'd been willing to sacrifice Vanessa and her friends because he sort of thought he was in a game, but it made him feel a little better hearing that his sort-of leadership had helped them win regardless (but he knew Riordan was wrong - Adam would have lost without Mira and Kai. He doubted Vanessa could have won with them, but Adam wouldn't have fared much better with Reeve and someone who hadn't seemed willing to mediate).
Thoughts of The Hollow stayed with Adam for the next day, lingering memories of that last game, of the first awkward steps of what would become his real friendship with Kai, and his certainty that they wouldn't have won without Kai on their side. Adam actually ended up watching old episodes of The Hollow after he finished his thesis - not the games he'd played, but he found highlights of Vanessa's games. It took an hour to realize how differently she'd acted in - every other game she'd played. She'd never guessed it was a game, and while she'd taken control of about half of the dozen or so teams she'd played with, she'd never tried to kill anyone. Two or three times, she'd actually done everything in her power to get everyone out safely, until it became clear only one team could win.
She didn't have a great track record, actually, until she'd teamed up with Skeet and Reeve.
Adam was squinting at a screenshot of Vanessa dangling Kai over the tundra when his phone buzzed. He jumped, staring at the phone for an uneasy moment, heart racing, before leaning over to check the screen.
Kai
Today
dude i'm outside 17:49
you didn't forget about movie sleepover weekend did you :( 17:51
"Oh, jeez." Adam scrambled up, knocking his chair over as he lunged for the door. When he yanked it open, there was Kai, an inch shorter than Adam still (a little more as he was slouched over his phone), scrawny, glancing up at Adam with dark eyes under shaggy red-brown hair. "Hey, buddy. Sorry, I finished my writing and sort of zoned out." He smiled at Kai, earning a wide, if shaky, smile in response. "Come on in - I didn't forget to get snacks."
"Oh, sure." Kai's smile steadied as he pocketed his phone, stood up straight and stepped into the room. He glanced at Adam's computer and paused mid-step, smile fading. "Adam?"
Adam looked to the screen, which was still paused on the moment before Vanessa dropped Kai. Adam hadn't seen it in real life, which meant it lacked the confused urgency of things he'd actually experienced in the game. But even knowing Kai hadn't been in any danger, Adam had only watched this once - he skipped it any time he found a reason to watch footage from that game. Kai had to know that.
"Sorry," Adam said, stepping over to close the window. "I was just...Riordan and I were talking about The Hollow last night and I started...thinking."
"Oh, yeah. Riordan knows everything about The Hollow," Kai agreed. He set his bag on the table next to Adam's couch and unzipped it. "Now, I know this is a breach of protocol, but my roommate's dad sent him brownies, and he's on a carb cleanse, so… potluck movie weekend?" He lifted out a plastic container full of brownies and smiled at Adam, not his hesitant greeting or the brighter grin when he'd found the weekend was still on, but. Shy. A little more like the first few times Adam had asked to hang out with him - uncertain if he was overstepping, trying to figure out the rules.
"Awesome! I bet these would go great with the ice cream I got. Thanks." Adam picked up his laptop, moving it to the coffee table Mira had made fun of him for buying ("Do you know who buys coffee tables? Nobody - they come pre-installed in suburban homes and sitcom apartments"), next to the popcorn, chips, carrot sticks, and dip. "What do you want to drink?"
"Anything's fine," Kai said, quiet. Adam paused halfway to his mini-fridge to find Kai staring at the brownies, biting his bottom lip. Adam couldn't quite identify his expression - pensive, maybe. Or worried.
"Those aren't, like, marijuana brownies, are they?"
"No!" Kai protested, hands flailing as he scrambled onto the couch, leaning over the back to offer Adam a wide, pleading gaze. "I wouldn't drug you against your will."
"Chill, buddy, I know," Adam replied. He retrieved a bottle of root beer and one of ginger ale, setting the former down next to the brownies before taking his seat on the left side of the couch. He grabbed Kai's left hand and tugged him around. "Come on, stop freaking out so we can watch movies." Kai settled on his side of the couch, pulling his hand away from Adam's only when he grabbed the root beer and opened it with a flick of his wrist. Kai threw the cap toward the trash (he missed - he always missed) and wriggled until he was sprawled out next to Adam. He held up his bottle, tilted toward Adam until Adam raised his own to clink the bottles against each other, a delicate 'clink' marking the start of the evening.
"Soo," Adam tried after a moment, "What are we watching?"
"Ah." Kai tapped at the side of his bottle, gaze dropping to the soda. "It's your room - we should watch what you want to. You hate the movies I like."
"I don't hate them," Adam protested. "I mean, I don't watch scary movies to relax, but I like watching terrible horror movies with you."
"Well, if you're sure," Kai replied, sipping at his root beer, tucking his legs up to rest his bottle against. "I've got two or three movies I've been meaning to watch."
"And what're they about?" Adam asked. "Mutated llamas? Evil rabbits? Killer chickens?"
Kai yelped, jolting his bottle, nearly spilling his root beer as he fumbled with his drink. Once steadied, he pointed at Adam with his bottle, free hand resting flat against his chest. "Dude," he gasped, "No."
"So...scared of chickens?" Adam guessed.
"Shut up," Kai muttered, finishing off his root beer in one swing and crossing his arms across his chest, glaring at the computer.
Adam nudged Kai's thigh with his foot, earning him a - it wasn't quite a glare, but looked like Kai was trying to. "I bet there's a story there."
"No. This is movie time, not childhood trauma time," Kai said. He leaned over to the computer, clicking through a few sites until he found what he was looking for. "You're not afraid of clowns, are you?"
"...No."
Kai smirked at Adam and winked before returning to his earlier sprawl. "You will be."
Twenty minutes into the movie, Adam was gripping onto Kai's arm, needing the comfort of knowing there was someone here with him. Twenty-five minutes in, Adam screamed and ducked his head to hide it between Kai's shoulder and the couch cushions. It was easier watching these things out of the corner of his eye, pressed up against the solid weight of a real person. He caught a glance from Kai, the other man frowning, worried.
"It's fine," Adam muttered, even if he had to shuffle closer to hide his face entirely from what was happening onscreen twenty seconds later. Kai's chest shifted when he huffed, almost a laugh, but not malicious.
"You're so weird," Kai said fondly (and he always got like this during scary movies - teasing, oddly confident, but nothing cruel).
"Shut up - you're weird," Adam retorted, even if he tucked his legs up so he could curl more comfortably against Kai, certain now this is where he'd need to spend the rest of the night, if the rest of Kai's movies were like this. "Just - watch your weird nightmare fuel."
They were halfway through the fourth movie, pizza and snacks half-devoured, when Kai finally stopped making comments about the movies, his chest shifting gently with his even breaths, and Adam reluctantly stood. Tomorrow (and they had planned a weekend for this), they'd watch better movies - or at least less scary ones, and Adam wouldn't need a comforting shoulder unless something particularly startling happened. It would be fun...just not like horror movie nights.
Adam laid a blanket over Kai before heading to bed himself. It wasn't peaceful, exactly, having Kai sleeping in his room - Kai snorted and muttered in his sleep - but it was nice, especially after a night of horror movies.
Adam dreamed about The Hollow, except all the NPCs were clowns with fanged mouths. Kai wasn't there - it was Mira and Reeve, older, making fun of him for being scared of all the clowns. And for some reason, they never thought to call for Gustaf's help.
When Adam woke, both his keys and Kai were gone. He was familiar enough with this ritual not to worry, as Kai reappeared ten minutes later with coffee and donuts (well, caramel-flavored milk with coffee in it, and something that Adam was certain was basically a chocolate milkshake).
"I got breakfast!" Kai declared, shaking the box of donuts.
Adam swiped his coffee first, smiling as much as he could (not much) after just waking up. "Thanks, buddy." He took a long draught, humming at the pleasant warmth of the drink. When he looked down, Kai was watching him, smiling gently. "What's up?"
Kai looked away, returning to the side of the couch to set down the donuts and his own drink. "Nothing. Just - I'm glad you're my friend."
"Aww, dude." Adam closed in on Kai, grabbing him around the shoulder and pulled him close, holding that position for just a few moments. "I feel the same way. You're awesome."
"Ah." Kai ducked his head away, cheeks pink. "I - thanks, you're-" He shrugged before slumping in Adam's grip. "Thanks."
"Well, now that we've got food, coffee, and feelings, let's get down to business," Adam declared, letting go of Kai and dropping onto the couch. When Kai didn't immediately follow, Adam patted Kai's side of the couch. "Come on, buddy - time's a-wasting."
Kai sat gingerly across from Adam, snagging his drink to cradle it against his chest. "So what are we watching?"
"It's Saturday morning," Adam replied. "Cartoons."
Several hours of cartoons left Adam relaxed, sprawled across one side of the couch. Kai was leaning against the other arm of the couch, legs stretched out to tangle with Adam's, snickering at every joke, even the dumb ones. They'd traded in their coffees for soda - grape for Adam and something called Irn Bru that tasted like nails for Kai - and they'd ordered pizza. Adam was in a good mood.
And then Kai's phone buzzed. He glanced at it, and his whole body went tense as he frowned at the screen.
Adam felt a chill, and pulled himself up. "Kai? What's wrong?"
"It's - weird," Kai said haltingly, picking up his phone, scrolling through something as his frown deepened.
"You're weird," Adam retorted. "Come on - you don't have to, but you can tell me-"
"No, it's weird," Kai repeated. He took a steadying breath before handing the phone to Adam. "It might be best if you see it yourself."
Adam wasn't sure what he was expecting to find - Kai's parents, some sort of internet arguments, or what. So when he saw the screen, he blurted, "What the fuck?"
Kai (Not Me)
Today
hey dude. i know you said you'd sleep on it 12:13
but we need your help and you're sort of our last chance 12:13
help me edvard diertkai you're my only hope 12:13