[Yael] Quite The Workout [Kaleth | Ko]

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Quite The Workout

For all that Kaleth hadn’t been certain he wanted to go out in the first place, arranging a date with Wes couldn’t have been simpler in the end. When they met up after class, Wessel came prepared with five ready suggestions for things they could do, depending on where Kaleth’s interests lie, and a flexible schedule. Wessel enjoyed physical activities, scenic excursions, food, animals—Kaleth opted for a hike on a day they both shared a shorter schedule, and as fate would have it, the weather favored them too. After starting out in the heat of midday, it cooled to a brisk, clear temperate as they climbed.

It was nice, Kaleth thought, to stretch his legs beyond campus, and the view even a few miles from town gave him a peculiar sense of peace, to be removed from it all—and as it happened, Wessel was more open to public advances when ‘public’ was a section of wilderness well away from prying eyes.

By the time they got to their first workout in Kaleth’s dorm, it was their third occasion to share some variety of private experience with one another’s bodies. It would be a handful more before the unspoken nature of their relationship would receive its first onlooker—unbeknownst to both Kaleth and Wessel, prior.

And on that occasion—well, Kaleth felt he was having a good time beforehand.  

[MissMisnomer]

Walking with a bounce in his step, Ko traversed the hallway through the upper floor of the boys’ dormitory, his boots making a satisfyingly distinct click every time they hit the polished wood floor. He was excited to be able to take off the bulk of his uniform and get into comfier clothes: why someone deemed it necessary to put a big sash across a mage’s chest continued to be a mystery to him. But, at least it looked cool, in a fancy sort of way, so that was nice. No matter how annoying it made taking off your jacket.

Already anticipating the conversational opportunity soon to come, he found himself chittering as he neared the room he shared with Kaleth. “So you wouldn't believe what happened today! We were all set up to hold the usual meeting, when a bird came into the room through the open window and flew right into Branson’s face! He was so surprised, he fell backwards, right into the shelf full of pots-”

His hand paused at the doorknob.

Did he hear something?

“...It was like… the whole world went into slow motion when it started to fall, so you can imagine why we had to call it quits early-”

Again, he caught a sound.

It almost sounded like…groaning?

His brow knit in concern.

“Kal, are you okay?” He asked, twisting the knob as he pushed the door open. “Did you get hurt-”

His eyes went wide, shocked beyond words.

[1/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth, admittedly, was following his own advice. Despite being (frankness aside) a relatively private individual and harboring no secret hopes of being discovered, he didn’t believe in letting outside concerns over what might be going on interfere with what ought to be a very focused time. All that mattered in this particular moment was Wes, his body, and the heightening cascade of noises he was failing to mute effectively in the sheets. In the back of his mind, Kal knew he had a time limit. They only had so long before Ko came back.

They didn’t have the leisure to drag their time together out.

Yet, the more comfortable it became, the more Kaleth forgot it wasn’t to be taken for granted. The easier it became to think he could push just a little longer even as his co-conspirator began edging him on, anxious.

This time was no exception, and as was perhaps bound to happen eventually-

The door opened.

Kaleth didn’t hear what was said. He glanced because motion out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and then, gaze locking for one instant on Ko’s, he shuddered, and came to a messy standstill. Akin in certain ways to coming down from the high of a fight, Kaleth felt reality piecing itself back together—and a slow, hot bloom of convoluted emotions crawled up his face.

“Ko.” He was staring at the back of Wessel’s head at this point, not quite ready to stare the smaller boy down. “Could you…wait outside. One moment. Please. We’re…” Kaleth realized as he looked that he could see Wessel’s blush spreading across his shoulders from this angle, “…almost done.”  

[MissMisnomer]

It was almost so completely out of his radar of things to expect he’d find in his room, that Ko didn’t believe what his eyeballs were registering, information coming together in fractured pieces.

Kal and a boy.

Together. On the bed.

Flushed. Sweaty. Naked.

Caught like a deer in the headlights, frozen in his boots, Ko made direct eye contact with Kaleth as the boy looked over.

He saw everything.

Words. Kal was saying words, and like a spell broken, feeling returned to Ko’s limbs. And with it came a tidal wave of blood rushing to his face, flooding his cheeks, his ears, his neck, everywhere. Like looking at a train crash, every minute detail of the scene was burnt onto his retina, locked into his ear-drums on a repeated loop, over and over.

“SORRY!!??!”

He slammed the door shut, practically falling backwards in his desperate efforts to retreat, get out of there as quickly as humanly possible. He had just walked in on something unfathomably private, something his eyes were not intended to see. A secret that evidently was not meant to be shared.

He ran down the hall.

[2/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

SORRY!!??!

The door slammed shut, Ko’s desperate apology still ringing in the air, and for one instant, all was calm. Kaleth heard nothing but his breath. Then, quietly enough he barely made the words out, Wessel murmured against the bedding, “G’t ‘ff…”

Kal shifted back, in no rush now that Ko had left them be. “Hm?” And he was in the process of pulling back when Wessel edged forward, volume sharply climbing.

“I said get off.”

Kaleth’s eyebrows rose, startled more than anything at first blush as they untangled from each other and Wes moved up, quick to put space between them despite the fact that he still looked somewhat unstable in the limbs.

“Hey…” When Kal reached, in what was intended to be at least a loosely consoling gesture since the other boy appeared more distressed than he’d anticipated, Wes’ shoulder jerked away, out of range.

“Don’t.” Wes’ teeth were grit, and he was pushing his way off the bed, snatching up his clothes in jerky movements. His entire upper body from shoulders to face was a deep, mortified red. And his hands were shaking, notable even amongst the hasty ritual of attempting to somewhat clean himself before shoving his way into clothes.

Kaleth frowned, still on the bed and nude as he watched. “He’s left, he probably won’t be back for a bit now, you don’t have to ru-”

“He already saw. Why would I care where he is now?” Wessel snapped back, and something in his tone sparked a splinter of irritation.

Why was he so upset?

Sure, it was a personal matter and Kaleth felt embarrassed—Ko shouldn’t have had to see that. But still: “It’s just Ko.”

“Just Ko?”

This, clearly, had not been the right approach to soothing Wes’ nerves.

“Just Ko. I didn’t want Jak to know and only told him because I was out of my mind, my closest friend who I’ve known all my life. I didn’t want you to know, gods, but I had no choice there, and now- I told you—you knew I didn’t want-” But at about that point, Wessel’s frustrations seemed to begin colliding with each other in such bulk that he couldn’t accurately voice them, instead hissing fragments of arguments as he crouched to pull on his shoes.

Kaleth stretched, lips still pursed when he moved off the bed himself. “Come on…you agreed to come here. Yeah, we didn’t plan for him to show up, but it was just an accide-”

Wessel rounded on him. “I agreed to come here because you wanted it. I told you, often, that I was concerned about it and that I wanted to be quiet and quick if we were here, that we could find other places, that maybe we shouldn’t here at all, I told you someone was coming and you—you-” Kaleth could see the rise in personal horror, like a swell. “You finished when he walked in the door-”

A sprinkle of heat dusted Kal’s eartips at the recollection, and he managed, for an instant at least, to look almost guilty. “I mean, yeah, that was…an accident too?” This assurance didn’t seem to help. “I was almost-”

“You were ‘almost’ for ten minutes—” Wessel’s fingers jabbed his chest, “—you were an a*****e is what you were!” And with that, Wessel gave him his back, sweeping for the room’s door.

“Wait-” Like a first ray of dawn, it finally came upon Kaleth then that Wessel was not merely mildly peeved, and his chances of ever having a repeat experience were in jeopardy if he didn’t say something. “So, like…” His gaze trailed to where Wes was paused by the door, a** facing him, head turned to look over his shoulder and hand on the doorknob. It really was a commendable view. “You’re coming back tomorrow still, right?”

Wessel made a sound which, no matter how optimistic Kal might try to be, sounded more like righteous indignation than anything else. The sound of the door slamming for a second time augmented it, and Kaleth found himself standing alone in his room, frowning at the shut door. After a few more moments told him that it would not be opening again on its own, he released a grunt of a sigh, and raised a hand to rub at his face.

“…damn.”

Wessel, though, would calm down. Surely. He’d just have to talk to him again later, after he’d had some time to cool off. For now, though, that left Kaleth with some empty space—and the thought that maybe he should go find Ko, and find out what state he was in.  

[MissMisnomer]

Without really caring where his feet took him, Ko ran, careening down staircases and bumping into classmates in his mad dash across the campus. But this wasn’t an enemy that could be outrun, and no matter which turn he took, that scene reared its face at him again.

He should have knocked. He should have spoken louder. He should have done something before he opened that door. After months of rooming with Kal, his usual policies of privacy had slipped, and nine times out of ten, he just strolled in whenever he fancied, unless the door was locked. It had just been so comfortable and familiar, like...why would he bother knocking on the door to his own room before entering?

But it wasn’t his room. It was their room.

Kaleth had every right to use it however he wanted, just as much as he did. It just appeared that Kal’s idea of a personal activity was a little different from his own.

Eventually he came face to face with a wall, able to move no further. It was dim, and dusty, and...vaguely familiar? His head whipped. Shelves. Folded clothes. A broom.

He was back in the supply closet of the old training building.

But...how had he gotten inside, wasn’t it locked?

He looked down; his hands were shaking, skin tingling as a faint purple glow dissipated into the dark. He had the faintest recollection of blasting a doorknob off. That would have done it.

Dropping down into a squat, he covered his face, rocking rhythmically with the frantic beating of his heart. “Oh gods oh gods oh gods…” What was he supposed to do now? This changed everything, it had to, he’d learned something he wasn’t supposed to know.

Kal liked guys. More than liked them, it went further than that, obviously, not if he was willing to, clearly enjoyed-

Ko’s face turned red all over again. And more than that, his head was buzzing, breath quick in his chest, palms sweaty, filled with some kind of feeling he didn’t understand, in his gut, lower than that, heat pulsing and throbbing-

He wanted.

[3/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth wasn’t in a rush to dress, per se. For all that Wessel was in a tizzy, he still felt fairly good all around: sated, content, pleasantly exercised, and Ko would be there when he got there. But, not knowing whether the boy would stick near the door or dart off somewhere, he did want to speak with him before he lost his trail. Ko was an unpredictable sort, and though he didn’t expect him to react in a disgusted or angry negative fashion, it was possible he wasn’t prepared for what he’d seen, and Kaleth didn’t want to upset him regardless of the form. He probably should have locked the door.

Retrospect.

Once he finished making himself presentable, Kal started out, and fortunately, finding Ko was easier than he feared. Apparently, he had made quite the impression, tearing down the halls and across campus, and being that at this point many of their peers recognized them as roommates, on seeing Kaleth, a number simply pointed in the direction Ko had gone off in. It eventually lead him all the way back, to the familiar territory of Ko’s first escapade with liquor.

There, of course, there was no one about, his last helpful guide having been back some way, but knowing this place for what it was, it wasn’t difficult to hazard a guess on his own from there. He picked his way across the room of the ground floor, towards the supply closet they had stowed away in that night. The knob was gone, and he could hear that it wasn’t empty. Quite without thinking beyond that, he reached to open it.

“Hey, Ko…”  

[MissMisnomer]

It shouldn’t have been as hot as it was in the old stone building, but Ko felt like his was boiling alive inside his skin, trapped in an internal dilemma he had not woken up this morning prepared to handle. He didn’t know why he was reacting this way, it had never happened before. Like there was some kind of insatiable itch that he needed to scratch. Or else he’d lose his mind.

Even as his cheeks burned with embarrassment, shame ― he knew he was doing something inherently wrong ― his fingers fumbled with the clasp at his pants, reaching inside.

Gods.

He touched his forehead to the wall, breath hot against the stucco as he slouched, shaking.

‘Hey, Ko…’

His eyes snapped open, ripped back into reality by the familiar voice. Forcing all of himself back into his pants, he shoved his hands down between his knees, curling up into a desperate ball as his forehead struck the floor.

“WHAT THE ******** KAL?!” He yelled, fat, angry, confused tears in his eyes. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME??!!”

[4/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth had been ready on some level for upset, a confrontation of sorts perhaps, or perhaps just a little confusion and embarrassment. He expected Ko might be flustered, or even a little unsettled, but on the whole, Ko was an accepting boy, bright spirited, light hearted. Kaleth didn’t expect much, and what he wasn’t prepared for-

WHAT THE ******** KAL?!

Kaleth blinked down in open surprise at the coiled, wailing lump that was his roommate.

WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME??!!

Ko’s voice had a quaver to it, even at full volume, and Kal frowned. “Are you…crying?” And just like that, in what might have been the most peculiar of emotional turns for him yet, he felt a splinter of—guilt? Unlike with Wessel, who he assumed would pull himself together of his own accord in the hours to follow when he realized how much he was overreacting, Kaleth felt more directly responsible for Ko’s state of distress, even if he wasn’t certain how exactly he factored into bringing it about in such force.

The experience seemed to be more of a shock to the smaller boy’s system than Kaleth had bargained for.

“Hey…” He crouched, but then hovered there uncertainly, unclear on how best to convey comfort from there. “Ko—look, I’m sorry. It wasn’t a secre-” He frowned. “Well, I didn’t want it to be a secret. I told you before I liked guys, I just…Wes didn’t want anyone to know. If it was me I would have told you. I should have locked the door, or warned you to be more careful about coming in…” But. “It hasn’t been that long. A couple weeks, tops, since we’ve been, you know…” Kal made a vague gesture, though in his position, Ko couldn’t see, “…hanging out…”

He eyed the lump.

“I didn’t mean to upset you…”