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When Damon got a vague text saying “Come back home, it's an emergency,” he ran so fast from the campus library to his shared apartment with his boyfriend thinking something disastrous happened. Like someone robbing them or a fire broke out and Kai got injured in the process of evacuating.
It was only when he slammed opened the door did he remember that Kai is the most dramatic person in the world.
Because it looked like everything was perfectly fine. Nothing knocked over, broken or on fire.
The only thing notable is the head of pink hair poking up from the couch. Damon's panic doesn't die down, though. He thinks that he passed or was sick out until he heard… cooing? Coming from him.
His steps come closer, not even hanging up his coat, to finally get Kai to turn and acknowledge him.
“Oh thank god, you're finally here.” He sounds relieved enough for the text to have truth behind it.
“Yeah, you texted like something major happened! I thought you were… a…”
Damon trails off when he now sees Kai's face, or rather what he's holding in his lap.
A baby. Loosely swaddled in one of their spare blankets and looking up at the man holding him.
One that looks like it's only a few months old and, more prominently, has some features that belong to Kai. That being the same skin tone and hair that's the same shade as Kai's roots, with the same cute button nose Damon kisses when he thinks Kai's asleep (he usually isn't.) Aside from those traits, it had light brown eyes and tiny moles across its face to make them look different enough.
When Kai notices that he's been staring at the baby too long, he shifts a bit to angle it better for Damon to see. It reaches for his dangling chain necklace with the hand not tucked into the blanket as Kai explains.
“This is my nephew, Hugo. Remember?”
Ah, that makes sense.
In fact, he recalls Kai mentioning about his sister having a kid recently. Shoving his phone in his face when they were in bed to show a wrinkly, potato-shaped newborn that's in her arms. The Hugo Kai's holding now looks more like the babies in diaper commercials. He has the cute factor to be in one.
“I… forgot that you were an uncle.”
“Hey, I told you about Kim!”
“But you never talked about her dropping her kids off here.” Damon quietly sits next to him. The little baby now has a hold on his chain and is playing with it. “Was this what the emergency was about? Just a babysitting job?”
“He was dropped off like an hour ago, I only texted you because I need you to watch him while I take a piss.” Kai shuffles the bundle into Damon's arms before he can even protest the idea. Hugo lets out tiny whines when the chain was taken away, only for Kai to shush him gently.
“H-hold on, I'm not good with kids. And I'm especially not good with babies.”
“Aw come on! You're technically his uncle too- oh, watch the head!” Kai tries to maneuver his arms to make Damon hold him properly. When he thinks it's done right, Kai stands back up and puts his hand to his hips.
“Look at that! I'd never thought I'd see the day when the cold-faced Maitsu gets to hold a baby!”
Cold-faced Maitsu glares at him while Hugo puts his fist into his mouth. Sadly, Kai doesn't relish in the moment as the need to use the restroom takes over.
“BRB, don't kill him while I'm in there.” He stumbles on his words as he bolts down the hallway. Damon hears the door shut, which leaves him alone with Hugo.
He tries so hard to stay still, afraid that any slight shift of his body could distress the baby. After a bit, he does look down at him. Hugo must have been staring intently at him the whole time, because he's greeted with big brown eyes below him. Still sucking on his fist.
“Hello,” Damon greets him. Because how else is he supposed to interact with something that can't talk back to him yet.
Hugo finally takes his hand out of his mouth. A line of spit connecting them droops down as he waves his arm around.
“Duh… duh…” he babbles, sprouting a toothless grin at Damon. The image is so cute that he can't help but smile back.
“What is it?” he says, a hint of a playful tone hidden in his words. “Are you trying to say my name? Can you say Damon?”
He knows he's acting stupid. That Hugo isn't at the age to start accentuating proper words. But he allows himself to break a few walls, just for a moment. Hell, he would bring his thumb for the little fist to hold on to if it wasn't covered in saliva.
“Da…” Hugo wiggles in his blanket. The smile on his face quickly faded as the whines returned.
“No. No, don't cry.” Damon panics, trying to shush and bounce him like how Kai did earlier. But it's too late. The whines escalate into full-blown crying and Hugo keeps thrashing about.
Shit! Shit! It hasn't even been three minutes and he's already fucked shit up!
“What did you do?!” Kai yells from the bathroom.
“I didn't do anything!” Damon yells back, mostly to get his voice across from Hugo's sobbing.
Kai comes running back into the living and scoops up the baby from Damon's arms.
“See Damon, he's just hot.” Kai undoes the blanket wrapping, revealing that Hugo has on a white onesie with a colorful train pattern on it. “That’s why he was squirming around.”
Turns out, he's actually right for once. As the cries die down back to whimpers. The blanket now pouring out of Kai's hold makes it look like he's in a man-made nest. Hugo is still moving his arms around, like he’s trying to grab onto something.
“I think I know what you want.” Kai sing-songs to Hugo. He beats down at the bag that Damon didn't notice on the side of the couch and rummage through the absurd amount of things in there. A few seconds later, he pulls out a caterpillar plush toy. With a red head having little black beady eyes and body made of sections of various shades of green. “Your Sulta!”
As soon as Hugo has in his arms reach, he holds the stuffie close to him. The whining immediately stops as he hugs it.
Damon watches as Kai rocks himself and gives Hugo a kiss on the head. The scene makes his chest swell up with love mixed with something indescribable. It's so disgustingly sweet and domestic that it almost makes him wonder about his own hypothetical kid. “Hypothetical” being highlighted, underlined, and circled with arrows pointing at it. Because there's no way he can picture them raising a human when they're barely taking care of themselves. But, seeing Kai do so well with calming his nephew down. Actually being the responsible and rational one in a situation. It gives Damon a pride that no debate win can give.
“When did you get so good with kids?” Was what he said instead of all that.
“I was the designated babysitter at family stuff,” He looks down and taps Hugo's nose, making him giggle. “Yes, I took care of all your cousins when they were potatoes like you!”
Kai squats down to the couch. Using the space next to Damon to spread out the blanket like a mat and put the baby on top of it. Setting Sulta in the cushions corner so that he can flip him over on his tummy.
“Have to be careful with this one. He's at his rolling stage.”
“Rolling stage?”
“Yeah, he doesn't know how to crawl yet so he just…” he spins his hand around to mimic the action. “Rolls over everywhere.”
“Makes sense,” Damon sees that to be true when Hugo tries to roll off the couch. He catches him before he goes too far off the edge by blocking him with his hand, “hey, what did he just say?”
When he seems that he's settled, Damon joins Kai on the floor. “So how long until Kim comes back?”
“5:30ish.”
Damon looks at the clock hanging up on the wall. Reading 12:47. He looks back at him with his eyebrows furrowed. “And what are we supposed to do with him for five hours?”
Kai hums as he rubs Hugo's back, “Well, for starters, you need to learn childcare 101. You clearly never learned in high-school.”
“Wasn’t Kim the one assigning you to look after her kid?” Damon argued.
“Oh come on, you're not going to let me take care of him all by myself!” Kai puts his hand on his hip and shakes his head disapprovingly, “no one likes a deadbeat. Even if it's for a day.”
Damon scoffs and looks at the baby. He's still awake but is much more relaxed thanks to Kai's petting. As much as his ego gets in the way, he can't help to think how cute Hugo looks with his cheek squished on the couch. He finally sighs and puts his shoulders down.
“Fine, only because he's your family and I want to help keep those good terms you finally have with them.” Damon stands up and crosses his arms, “and I don't want to be stuck here with him all day.”
“Having a little adventure with him doesn't sound too bad,” Kai agrees. He gets closer to Hugo, nearly touching noses and switching back to the baby voice. “Since it's fall, why don’t we go to the park and play with the leaves, huh? Something you don't get in the big city.”
“I know for a fact that they’re some trees in cities.” Damon gets up and finally shrugs his coat off. “Can I at least get some time to get ready-”
He’s suddenly cut off by a tiny fart noise. It makes both of them slowly turn to where the sound came from. The adorable culprit still lays on the couch, trying to play innocent.
Damon struts up and picks up the perpetrator, “toilet humor is low brow, sir.”
Hugo lets out another fart and giggles, almost like he’s trying to argue with him nonverbally. Damon still moves him to lay on his shoulder.
“It’s usually more than a fart with this one. Smelly little thing.” Kai gets up next to Damon. Hooking his free arm and dragging him to the bedroom, “But this is a good time to teach you how to change him.”
Damon rolls his eyes but still lets himself be dragged, “if he tries to piss on me, I’m using you as a shield.”
…
After making sure everyone is properly dressed to go outside — Hugo had a puffy coat and knitted hat from when he was dropped off, along with a baby carrier and the other obscene amount of things in that baby bag — They headed out of their apartment and made their way to the park.
Damon’s holding the carrier while Kai is holding the big bad on his shoulder and doing whatever he does on his phone. Hopefully telling his sister about their excursion. Hugo is staying mostly quiet, aside the occasional babbling to himself.
When they were about halfway there, Kai finally got off his phone and held the other side of the carrier handle. Making Damon hold the left side and Kai hold the right. That simple action to Damon shows that he’s not just dumping his nephew onto him, that he cares for his family member and wants to share that with him.
To an outsider, it does look like they're two fathers taking their kid somewhere. Damon won't be surprised if someone told them how cute their baby is.
“Were you this calm when you were a baby?” Damon asks after they've been walking in silence. Even Hugo being quiet when being swung in his carrier by two people.
“Oh hell no.” Kai laughs, "I've had reports that I would cry every chance I get.”
“I'm not surprised.” Damon tries to suppress the smirk creeping across his face, “You're still a crybaby to this day.”
“And I bet you were so fuzzy. The fuzziest little baby around.” Kai spits back at him.
“I was the opposite, actually.” Damon rubs his neck and looks down to the sidewalk. Suddenly the cracks on the pavement look very interesting. “My parents told me that I rarely cried unless it was for normal baby needs.”
“Lucky, nonchalant baby.” Kai mutters to himself.
After a few more blocks, they finally reached the park.
The park was an open space of faded green grass and barren trees that lost most of their leaves. The ones that are still on the branches are on the verge of breaking off with a small gust of wind. The rest are in small hills scattered throughout the whole park. Small kids are playing in some of them with their parents watching.
Kai wasted no time in shedding the bag off and face-planting himself in a big pile. Damon sets the carrier down right on the edge of the leaf pile and squats himself down next to it.
“You're not letting him in the leaves?” Kai pokes his head up with bits of the pile stuck in his hair.
“There could be bugs in there.” He says, rocking the carrier, “or he could sink in the pile and suffocate.”
Kai laughs and crawls to them. Picking up a more colorful leaf on the way there. One that fades from yellow to red.
“He'll be fine, as long as we're here.”
Kai presents the leaf to Hugo. Twirling it in between his finger and thumb. “Ooooh. Look how pretty, Hugo.”
The baby reaches out for the piece of foliage and makes grabby hands at it.
“Do you want to hold on to this for me?” Kai hands the leaf over to him. Fitting perfectly in his tiny fist. Hugo seems pleased with this deal as he waves the leaf around like a magic wand with a smile on his face.
If he gets this enamored by only one of them, then it's safe to say that he'll enjoy being in a whole pile. Damon sits down, undoing the harness on him and carefully putting him on his lap. When he looks back at Kai, he sees that he's sitting back up but still knee-deep in the leaves.
“Hey Hugo, watch this!”
Kai bends down and scoops up a good chunk of the pile. Then he lifts himself back up and throws the leaves in the air with a “wheee!” they float down around all of them until they’re scattered on the ground.
Hugo just stares at him, like he thinks Kai’s embarrassing himself for him. Not even bouncing in Damon’s lap in amusement.
So Kai does it again. Making sure his “wheee” is louder and longer.
And again, nothing from Hugo.
Kai tries again, this time only using one hand.
At this point, Hugo comes back to playing with his own leaf. Acting like Kai isn’t even in front of him.
“C’mon man, I would’ve ate that up as a kid,” Kai hangs his head, dejected that his own nephew won’t pay attention to him and his nature confetti.
The whole thing makes Damon chuckle, jostling the baby when his whole body moves.
“He must like sitting with me more than playing.”
Kai falls back into the pile and shimmies up to Damon's lap. Feigning a personal wound to his heart.
“How could you betray me like this?” Kai laments. More like he's asking Hugo than Damon about it.
“I don't decide what he gravitates to. Kids are strange like that.” Damon’s arms squeeze Hugo a little tighter when he notices he started slipping off him. Earning a little squeak from him.
“Don't go crushing him.” Kai gently warns, hovering his hands over him. But once he sees that Hugo's perfectly fine, he lays off.
“Anyways, can I borrow him for a sec? Kim wants autumn pictures of him.” Kai asks. Then he looks back down at the baby and starts poking at his belly. Adding more of the baby talk, “and then you need your lunch after that. We don’t want a hangry Hugo in our mists.”
They traded items, which is Kai's nephew for his phone and the precious leaf that he puts to the side.
Damon takes photos of Kai holding Hugo with the fall scenery, then a couple of Hugo by himself on top of the pile. He thankfully didn't get buried and suffocated, but they wrap up the shooting when the kid tries to put a crunchy leaf in his mouth. An indication that Kai was right about his lunchtime.
Moving their stuff to a vacant picnic bench, Kai sets Hugo firmly in the crook of his arm before he takes out a pre-made bottle.
“Damn. Did Kim put the whole nursery in there?” Damon asks half-jokingly.
“Cut her some slack. She's raising him all by herself. I don’t blame her for being prepared.” Kai holds the bottle near Hugo's mouth, “Here you go, pumpkin.”
From where Damon's sitting on the other side of the table he can't see Hugo but from hearing the sound of soft sucking, he can know that he’s enjoying it.
“You’re very good at this.” Damon thinks out loud.
“Good at what? Feeding a baby?”
“Just taking care of kids in general.” Damon leans in, resting his chin on his hands. Not an appealing posture he’s used to being in, but it’s appropriate for being enamored. “It’s like you have a natural talent for it.”
Damon takes in the pride as Kai's face turns red. “C-come on, man. I'm only doing so well because Kim will have my head on a platter if I mess up.”
“You're acting like Kim's going to kill you if anyone touches him wrong.”
“First: Phrase that better. Second: Yeah, she won't hesitate. I lived with her most of my life, I would know.”
No matter how much Kai defends himself, Damon doesn't believe it.
He can count the number of times he's met Kim in person with only one hand. But from what he's seen and how she's described by others, she's very no nonsense. Tired of the family's bullshit as much as Kai is but is willing to stick out for them. She practically helped raise Kai and his younger sister (yeah, there's two sisters he has to keep track of) so it's not surprising she'd want kids of her own. It's almost like she said “fuck it” and went and had her own family that would respect her. No husband or boyfriend holding her down. She's seems strong, but more emotionally than physical. Damon never took her for a killer type.
“I was going to say that she has a good support system. Raising a kid all by herself and all,” Damon backpedals the conversation. “If she trusts you enough to watch her son for a day, it shows how dependable you are. Even after not seeing you for years.”
“You have a point there.” Kai rolls his head back to stretch it out. “But it feels like everything's about Hugo with her now. Of course I love both of them to death and I know she made this choice willingly. She knew what she was getting into. But I think that she forgot everyone had to sacrifice a little bit of themselves for him, not just Kim. Like…”
Kai trails off, moving his head back down to look at Hugo like he's purposely avoiding looking at Damon. It's like he said too much, that if he vents about his sister too much she'll spy on him with an invisible camera.
“I understand what you're saying. You feel like you've not talked one-on-one with her in so long,” Damon guesses.
Kai doesn't respond, still having his head lowered. Damon decides not to push further on it. The silence really opens up the ambiance around them. The crunching of leaves under passerby’s feet, people talking or playing in the grass, cars driving by in the distance that's beyond an iron gate.
Damon doesn't know how many minutes passed, but it must have been enough for Hugo to finish his formula. Because Damon’s staring into space was interrupted by Hugo squirming in Kai’s arms. He mumbles something about “outgrown this type of thing” and gets a towel out of the bag.
It’s quick and easy for him to get burped. Only taking a few pats on his back for the gas to let up and carefully putting Hugo back in the carrier.
Kai takes the scrunched up towel back in the bag. But he looks around it longer than usual, his face focused like he’s looking for something.
“Where’s Sulta?” Kai asks himself, the rummaging becoming more rushed and panicked.
“You didn’t put it in the bag.” Damon recalls, the stuffed caterpillar being last seen on the couch in his memory.
The realization must have struck Kai at the same time, because he groans and puts his head in his hands. “I thought you put it in!”
“I thought you put it in when I was putting my coat on!” Damon argues, he can’t believe that he has a talent for this when it's something like a misplacement of a toy. “I don’t understand why you're so worked up about it. We know it’s safe back home.”
“He doesn’t know that!” Kai whisper-screams, pointing strongly at the baby falling asleep in the carrier. How he’s able to doze off when fighting is happening in front of him is beyond reason.
“Sulta was a gift from my mom when he was born, aka his grandma! He was mine as a baby and it always calmed me down. It’s like a family heirloom at this point.”
Kai takes in a deep breath from his spiel, being so dead serious that a caterpillar holds that much weight, “so when he finds out that Sulta is gone, he’ll throw a fucking fit.”
Okay, knowing now that Sulta was his before it was Hugo's makes sense why he's so adamant about not losing it. Damon can't help but imagine a baby Kai being red in the face. Screaming his little lungs out, holding onto that thing for dear life. Wiping the stained tears from his face with the fabric. But fantasizing about how cute Damon's boyfriend would be as a kid won't stop either him or the baby from crying about it in the present.
“Okay, okay,” Damon stands up with a huff. “We’ll just head home before he wakes up.”
Kai follows him, picking up the carrier. Thankfully Hugo didn’t notice that his toy was gone until outside of their apartment.
…
The rest of the day flies by quickly. Hugo was fine with watching TV (with heavy moderation from Damon with shows that he picked specifically to not overstimulate and rot his brain) and playing with Sulta for a good few hours with diaper changes in between. Mindless conversation happens between Damon and Kai, eventually coming to the conclusion of ordering out Chinese for dinner. Damon takes Hugo to their room to settle down for a nap while Kai is on the phone. But it's strange since he hears talking through the walls.
Kai comes in and just when he was about to say that dinner’s here, he walked in on the most precious thing he's seen:
Damon, holding one of his mystery novels in one hand and cradling Hugo to his chest in the other. The little one sleeping soundly and sucking on a pacifier. The muffled talking means that Damon was reading to him.
Stop, he can't. The wholesomeness is too much. He puts his hands to his mouth to contain any squealing.
“Oh. Oh my gosh,” Kai thinks his voice can't go any higher, but he doesn't think about what comes out of his mouth next. “You look so hot like this.”
“What?”
“What.”
“What did you say?”
“I said dinner is hot and ready.”
“No you didn't.”
“Yeah I dad- I mean did!”
“What has gotten… Wait.” Damon sits up and sets the book down. Trying to fight a shit eating grin. “Are you into dads?”
“No!” Kai yells a little too defensively. But he immediately shuts himself up when he remembers the sleeping baby in the room. “I don’t know what you're talking about,” he says more quietly.
“Maybe you don’t notice, but you get this goofy smile every time I’m holding him.” Damon squeezes Hugo a little closer to him to prove his point. “I’m just saying it’s cute. You both are.”
“I..” Kai puts a hand over his face to hide the blush growing. Feeling how hot his face is. He turns around and walks back out. “Set him on the bed and come get dinner already.”
…
Kim did stop by not long after that whole exchange. She said her hellos and got all the baby stuff out of their hands, also shared her many thanks to the both of them with how short notice her visit was. Something about a meeting in their town’s building that was cities away from hers and Kai happening to be in the area. But even after Hugo went home, Kai couldn’t stop thinking about what Damon said. Him? Having a thing for dilfs? With his track record of nonexistent father figures in his life, it was almost laughable! But he can excuse that for all the pictures he snuck of Damon being wholesome with his nephew. That’s a 1/1,000 chance of happening.
A few days later after the Hugo Incident, Kai comes into his therapist's office. It's routine at this point to come in every Thursday after his classes are done and tell her what happened that week. It was Damon who recommended that he go. After an episode that ended up with Kai in the hospital. Thank god it wasn't any too life altering, but it still did have Damon lecturing him. That he can't solve every problem he's had internally by himself and begged that he go seek professional help. Even if he had to drag Kai into his first appointment to not have something like this happen ever again.
God, and they weren't even dating yet.
Thankfully, the one they found was a walk away from campus. It makes sense for therapy to be near a school that's full of students with expectations beyond anything normal by the whole country. And from the year he's been with her, Kai would say that it's been helping. After the first initial resistance of their first session, she had to clarify that, no, there are no hidden cameras or recording devices that's going to leak any personal information. Everything said in her office will stay in her office.
It was nice talking to someone with no biases on him. She's no Ultimate Therapist by any means, but Miss Onoja has given good advice and doesn’t talk down to him about his problems.
Which brings him to bringing up that he admits that he's wrestled with the nauseating idea of dads being hot. She looked up from her clip board for the first time that day.
“What makes that thought nauseating?” Miss Onoja asks.
“I mean, it's obvious isn't it.” Kai responds, shifting in his chair and crossing his arms. “Dads aren't supposed to be hot. The ones I’ve come across were awful!”
“So what are they supposed to be, then?”
“Old.” Kai attempts a joke, but the therapist's expression doesn't change.
“What prompted these thoughts about fathers? Did something happen?”
“A few days ago, Damon and I- wait, you remember Damon, right?”
“I remember your partner. I wouldn’t be a good therapist if it didn't.” Miss Onoja clarifies. It's not like she had to hear all about his crush on his roommate for the first few months of Kai coming in or anything.
“Okay, good. So Damon and I had to babysit my nephew for a bit, which I'm used to. But I had to teach Damon what to do, since he’s a baby.”
“How old is your nephew?”
“4 months.”
The therapist hums in understanding. Kai knows she's also a mother and had to deal with several 4 month olds herself in the past.
“We had a fun time and everything, but… oh, you should have seen them. He was so good with the baby. When I taught Damon how to take care of him, he was so gentle. And I sorta told him that he looked hot while the nephew was sleeping on him. And he sorta… made fun of me for it.”
“Made fun of you?” Miss Onoja raises her eyebrow at him.
“Not in a mean way! Like, he said I must have a thing for dads. Which is not true! I've never dated anyone that was old enough to be my dad!”
“I never asked if you dated older men.” Onoja deadpans. Silently asking not to raise his voice in her office.
“Right, sorry.” Kai sinks into the chair. The leather squeaking beneath him doesn't help at all.
“Besides, I don't think he meant that it had to do with age. He's the same age as you, correct?”
“We're a few months apart, but yeah.”
“Then it must be solely focused on the parental aspect.” She pushes up her glasses and crosses her legs. “Forgive me if this is a breach of boundaries, but I've noticed how negatively you react about fathers during this whole topic. Do you… have any negative feelings about your own dad to cause this?”
“My dad?” Kai quietly repeats. Reaching to the back of his mind to flood all of his memories about his father.
His dad.
Kai doesn't remember his dad much during his childhood. It was mostly his mom and sisters that would do most of the heavy lifting around him. He doesn't remember his dad swimming with him or playing dress up with impromptu fashion shows. Don't get him wrong, he was still there. He was living under the same house as the rest of them. It wasn't until he became a teen did he get more involved. Getting in his face about grades, making comments about his voice being high-pitched even after puberty hit, generally making sure that his only son fit his standards. The way both his parents acted like they were tired of him when he opened his mouth.
“You're the second man of the house,” he would lecture whenever Kai would start whining about the latest thing that has been torturing him. “You have to start acting like the first. So stop complaining.”
Kai hasn't spoken to him in years. And he wants to keep it that way.
“He was kinda distant,” Kai decides to tell her. It makes him shift in his seat for the hundredth time. “And had all these expectations for me since I was his only son.”
Miss Onoja only nods and writes something down on her clipboard.
“I won't push further, this can be a topic for another day,” she consults in a more gentle tone. “But I believe that's why you saw Damon being attentive to a child as attractive. He was being the father you wish you had.”
“Oh god, does that mean I want to fuck my dad?!” Kai abruptly concludes, cursing every person under the Freud name.
“Please let me finish,” The therapist says unfazed. “It's simply just protection. You're projecting what you wanted your father to be growing up and seeing that in Damon. Unless you have sexual fantasies about your dad, it's nothing harmful.”
Kai finally relaxes, even if it's just a little bit.
“But don't you find it crazy?” Kai turns away from her on his chair and lays on his side, “we haven't dated a full year and I already want him to have my kids.”
A few seconds passed without a word from Onoja. Which is a first for Kai. She always has some input or something to quote from books Kai's never read. Like the revelation of her client thinking about having kids struck a cord with her. Being a family woman does that to someone, Kai guesses. Eventually she clears her throat and goes back to therapist mode.
“Can I try something with you?”
“You try a lot of stuff with me.” Kai throws back, remembering the times she made him do all of those ink blots tests.
“I'll take that as a yes,” she sets her clipboard down on her desk and leans in. “Let me ask, where do you see yourself and Damon in ten years?”
Ten years?! He had to mentally step back from this. They haven't dated for that long for Kai to think about them in ten years! He doesn't even know what Damon is making for dinner tonight! Much less the dinner ten years from now!
But if Kai's being honest, they're sometimes where he fantasizes about their life after Eden’s Academy. But that still begs questions. Would Kai Monteago still be an influencer? Or would the internet deem him “too old” for making posts about StellaDolla and trending clothes?
But at least he knows he has friends to support him now. Even if Damon decides to move on from him or not. So he sorta does have an answer for her.
“This is wishful thinking but…” He begins, already thinking that this is cringe. So he tries to think of a timeline.
“After we get done with school, we would move somewhere away for the academy, either a bigger apartment or, if I’m being generous, a house. I’m not picky but Damon would want to be close to where his parents live so we can visit more often. While he's studying being a lawyer or president or whatever he wants to do.”
“If I remember correctly, Damon is an immigrant,” Onoja interjects.
“Yeah, and?”
“Immigrants can't become president.”
…
Kai thinks back to his government class he took in high-school to remember that you, in fact, can't be an immigrant in order to become president.
“Oh fuck, your right.” Kai realizes, incredibly dumbfounded. He shakes his head to try and get back on topic. “Well he would study something political. I'd probably invest in something stupid like my own coffee brand or soaps. Uh…”
Kai looks back at his therapist. She looks like she's listening intently and nodding along. As to say “go on.”
“We would definitely have cats. Damon talks my ear off about having one. Knowing me, I'll eventually cave in. But if everything doesn't go to shit and we're stable in our careers. Then we…”
Kai looks down and plays with the rings on his fingers, he can't help but to imagine one that's on his ring finger that's different from the others.
“We'd get married.”
Kai finishes his yapping about this hypothetical life plan. Silence once again fills the room. But it's more like Onoja is pausing for dramatic effect.
“That’s strange,” Miss Onoja softly speaks up. “I didn't hear anything about having children.”
The alarm of his therapist's phone rings. She takes her phone and shuts the annoying sounds off.
“Looks like our time is up.”
Kai takes his backpack on the ground and gives a small bye, but stops when he feels a hand on his shoulder.
“Before you leave, I have some homework for you.”
“Ugh, but I hate homework.” Kai groans in fake annoyance.
“It's simple. Sit down with Damon and talk about your future together. Ask if he wants to stay with you for the long run. If he wants to get married and have kids one day.”
Kai gives a nod. It satisfies his therapist enough to let him go. He goes outside with the autumn air hitting his face. The final leaves on the branches riding on it. God, it feels so close to winter. He needs to set a date to get Christmas shopping done.
Walking back to his apartment, Kai gets his phone out and makes a call. Only taking a few seconds for the other line to pick up.
“Hey, Damon. I need to talk to you when I get home.”