Sixteenth
1384 Words
Chapter 16
"Are you fine with these?" Ram asked as he showed K the foods they picked from the store.
"Yep." K answered. "Wait a minute ." K excused as he heard his phone ring.
He looked at the caller I.D. and saw it was Maxim.
"Hello?" K greeted as he answered the call.
"Kaven! What happened to you? Are you ok? Mom said he saw you at the hospital when she drove my cousin there!" Maxim said on the line, a string of worry all over his voice.
Maxim's mom already met K when Maxim let K walk him home one day.
"Calm down Maxy. I'm perfectly fine. I'm just visiting my friend here." K answered.
"Oh. T-that's... good to hear." Maxim said in relief.
"I'm really happy you're worried about me." K said happily and the owl blushed from the other line before saying "Shut up." that made the latter laugh.
"You're really cute ." K blurted out.
"Stop it, Kaven! I'll hang up now. I hope your friend will get better soon." Maxim said.
"Yeah, thanks. He's strong, I know Kinien will get through this." K said.
Maxim's frozen on the other hand. Kinien? He thought.
"Hey Maxy, still there?" K asked.
"s**t!" K heard Maxim shouted before the phone beeped, signalling that the call had ended.
Kaven panicked because of that and he dialed Maxim's number but he's not answering. He tried to dial again and again and again but Maxim's not picking up. He decided to teleport to Maxim's house so he ran outside to teleport because there were people in the store. Ram even asked where he's going but he ignored him. He ran and looked for an empty alley or street to teleport. He finally found one but a taxi cab suddenly came and stopped him from teleporting and a nervous Maxim got out of it.
"Maxy!" K said.
"Where's he?" Maxim asked.
"Who?" K asked back.
"Kinien." Maxim answered.
Kaven's confused but he leads Maxim back to the hospital where Kinien is admitted. The two of them saw Akizen now calmed and sitting beside Rhys.
"Zen." Maxim called.
The Akizen's small eyes widened when he saw Maxim.
"Maxy!" Akizen stood up saying it and he ran to Maxim and hugged him.
"What happened to Kinien ?" Maxim asked, still not letting go of the hug. He really missed his best friend.
"He... He got stabbed but the doctor said he's fine now. I missed you Max." Akizen said.
"Gosh! He's still careless! I missed you, too Zen." Maxim said back and the two of them tightened their hug more. Then they heard fake coughs.
"So! That's a happy reunion, that's enough now." Rhys said, pulling Akizen away from Maxim as K pulled his mate away, too. Akizen and Maxim just gave them a flat look.
"Seriously, Mr. Titan?" Akizen said.
"What? I don't want you hugging others!" Then the said titan pouted.
"By the way, you two know each other?" K asked.
"Of course! We're all classmates." Rhys answered.
"Rhys, first, I'm not asking you and second I know that! It's just that... they're not this close in school." K said, stopping himself from hitting his co-alpha.
"Right! It's a long story. Now's not the time to tell it." Akizen said.
"Akizen you're- WAAAAAH! Maxyyyyy!" Nicole shouted as he hugged Maxim, too.
"Nike! I missed you." Maxim said.
"So am I Maxy! I missed hugging our squishy Max!" Then the baby face Nicole pouted, tightening the hug and it happened again but this time it's Ram who's pulling his mate away from Maxim.
"Ram! Tsk. I miss him and I want to hug him badly." Nike said while struggling from Ram.
"Nike don't hug him." Ram said.
K laughed at that and smiled as he saw Maxim smiling brightly. This is his first time seeing Maxim this happy. He doesn't know what's happened to Akizen, Nicole, Kinien and Maxim in the past but all he knows is that his beloved is happy.
"Let's go see Kinien while they're rumbling there." K said and Maxim nodded.
~
"Kini, you have to wake up now. We're now complete again. Please?" Maxim said and gave a tight smile at the unconscious Kinien while holding its hands. "I missed you ." Maxim said before leaving the room with K.
"Maxim!" Akizen and Nike shrieked as they attacked Maxim with a hug.
"Oh come on!" Rhys whined.
"Seriously?" Ram stomped his feet on the ground.
"Oh jeez." K just said then sighed.
~
"So you three with Kinien are best friends when you were kids?" Rhys asked after the three told them their story.
"Until now." Nike corrected him while busy playing with Maxim's hands.
"So that's it, no need to be jealous, baby." Akizen said, arms clinging to Maxim's.
"BABY?!" K, Ram, Nike and Maxim asked altogether.
"Uhh. Yeah? He's my boyfriend now." Rhys said proudly.
K and Ram looked at him in envy but then congratulated him and did some brohug.
"Now that's cute." Akizen giggled and Maxim and Nicole joined him.
"Now Rhys got his boyfriend." Ram pouted.
"W-Wait! They might kill me!" They heard someone shout from one corner.
"No! It's fine. I'll do the talking." They heard another voice.
Then as if on cue they saw Chris pulling Nikki out of that corner.
"Hey." Rhys greeted them. Nikki flinched at it.
"Yo." Chris greeted them back.
Chris finally pulled Nikki who's lowering his head because he's afraid.
"Panda here has something to say." Chris said.
"H-Hey, maybe we should do this nex-" Nikki whined.
"Come on babe I know you wanna say it." Chris said.
"BABE?!" K, Ram, Nike and Maxim shouted again, this time together with Akizen and Rhys.
"Now Chris also has a boyfriend." Ram muttered.
"Yeah. He became mine just a while ago." Chris said and they missed seeing a panda blushed.
They're shocked but also congratulated Chris afterwards. They know Nikki wants to say sorry but he's shy and he thought they won't forgive him but he's wrong because they know he'll not do things without a heavy reason.
"I... I'm sorry." Nikki blurted out.
"We know and guess what..." Nikki raised his head as he heard Akizen speak. "We forgive you." Nikki dropped on the floor and started to sob. Then, Akizen continued his words, “Nikki, you were with us since freshman year and even if it’s just a little bit, we know you and we’re sure we know something about you that you’re not seeing in yourself. You may look and act tough but we know you’re also struggling with something and we want to be here for you. What you did to Kini is really bad but Kini will forgive you if you’ll confess the truth.” Akizen pulled Nikki to stand up and smiled, he wiped Nikki’s tears too.
“Nikki, we’re all here for you. You still have time to make things right.” Nicole said.
Akizen, Nicole and Nikki are about to hug each other but are immediately pulled away by Rhys, Ram and Chris. The panda, smurf and Nike just raised a brow at them.
Maxim and K just laughed at the scene but were replaced by a shocked expression when someone back hugged Maxim.
"Yo! What's wrong with you people today? Why are you all hugging my Maxy?!" K exclaimed and Maxim blushed a little with the 'my Maxy' part.
"Is that bad?" Ray asked.
Yes, it's Ray who hugged Maxim.
"Yes." K said poker faced.
"Sweetie! You shouldn't hug people so suddenly!" Rio said.
"Sweetie?!" K, Ram, Nike, Maxim, Akizen and Rhys asked again but this time they're with Nikki and Chris.
"Yep. We're now official." Ray said and laughed shyly.
"So don't just hug someone around." Rio said.
"What's the problem hugging him? He's my cousin." Ray said like it's nothing.
"Cousin?!" They asked.
"We didn't know him back then." Akizen said.
"Yeah. I'm not with you guys anymore when Ray started living in our house." Maxim explained.
"And how come you didn't tell us Ray?" Akizen asked Ray.
"Well... uhh... I... forgot." Ray said awkwardly.
"That's Ray for you." Nike said and they all laughed.
~
- Writer
