The Casual Distraction of the Book Nerd [Nerd-Boy]

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryphon was very proud of the fact that Kodi had a job. He was really happy for him, especially seeing as he knew how much his boyfriend liked reading and now he was working in a bookstore. He couldn't relate perfectly, but it would be like if he had a job where he was paid to dance, or take photos, he supposed. And that seemed like a lot of fun. In other news, Gryph had been looking for a job. He found that there was this dance studio nearby which he could and would inquire to see if he could get some kind of employment there. That would be brilliant.

For now, though, he had spare time and a slight boredom, so, of course, he dropped everything to go see Kodi while he worked.

Would he be supportive? 

...well, that depended.

He arrived at the store, which wasn't huge, but it wasn't tiny either. Instead of announcing his arrival, he slipped in between the shelves to hopefully stay out of sight, and pulled out his phone (in the hopes that Kodi had his phone on him),

To: Kodiak

hey, how's your work going? hope you're not too busy ;P

He smiled and peeked around, keeping an eye out. This was fun.

[Deleted]

Kodi still had a hard time believing he'd been hired sometimes. He sort of became a different person when he was around his element - being surrounded by books really calmed his mind like nothing else did. He even looked the part, clad in his dark-rimmed glasses that matched his now dark hair, which had one streak of teal through the side. He was glad, too, that he was able to wear what he wanted, and not some dumb slacks and polo with a logo on it or something - he just had a nametag, and could wear his normal tight-ass jeans and dark tops.

Customer service was still something he wasn't the best at, so he tended to just stock the shelves for the most part, wandering the aisles and adjusting things so everything looked perfect. He was slightly OCD when it came to books being tidy, something that his manager complimented him for. It made Kodi feel useful, and that was good.

As he adjusted a couple books to look more orderly on a high shelf, he felt his phone buzz in his butt pocket. He flipped it open to see a text from a certain someone. Kodi rolled his eyes with a grin, completely unaware that Gryph was in the store.

To: Moron(<3)

Going fine. Just making the shelves look pretty. Quiet day, wish something exciting would happen.

He sent the message off and continued his work, stretching his arm up high to reach the tall shelf; the hem of his shirt lifted a few inches up in the process.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Ordering things... whilst Gryph knew how useful it was to have things in order, and in some cases, how important, Gryphon's actual organization skills were pretty atrocious. His room was a constant organized mess - like a cyptic code he understood and no-one else could decipher. He knew where everything was, and everything had a rightful place, whether it was on his desk, under his bed, on the windowsill or on the top shelf of his wardrobe, he knew where everything was.

He remember about a minute after he sent that message to put his phone on silent - or at least, on vibrate. Kodi would probably recognize the ringtone, otherwise, and then it would all go downhill.

A few minutes (and a lot of stealthy ninja movements) later, he had a text. He unlocked his phone and lent against the shelves, smirking at the words. Careful what you wish for, he thought, as he replied.

To: Kodiak

covering them in flowers or something? ;P i'm sure something interesting will happen soon x

He clicked send - whether had he had said would be a coincidence or a purposeful hint would be down to his next actions.

So, it was going to be a purposeful hint.

Gryph had some things with him. Namely, a jacket, a snapback hat and some sunglasses. He was going to make things interesting, alright.

He lost his idea of hiding in cover as soon as he donned those items, practically hiding his identity. The only things that could give away who he was were his proportions, his voice and maybe his smell, if Kodi was that... if he remembered things like that.

The winged boy walked around the store normally until he rounded a corner and spotted Kodi. When he did, he couldn't help but smile at the sight of him wearing his glasses, before he went into idiot mode - his dancer's posture disappeared and became something slouched and grotesque, his smile was replaced by a half grimace and he practically bounced around as he walked. He walked up beside Kodi and looked at the shelves, before looking at him (he probably seemed a few feet shorter now), "'Ey, can you 'elp me out, 'ere?" He played with his voice so it was obnoxious and stupid, "I need s'mthin' fer my girl." He didn't even know what section of the store they were in. He rubbed his hands together and pretended to scan titles and he said that, though, very much trying his best to hide who he was. But this was already hilarious.

[Deleted]

Kodi finished the shelf he was working on and moved on to the next one that seemed particularly out of order, quickly spiffying everything up and making it look more presentable. Some of them were out of order, even, and he frowned, grunting in frustration as he adjusted them to where they should be. Stupid people, didn't know how this stuff worked...

His phone buzzed again, and Kodi looked at the text, snorting. What a dork...

To: Moron(<3)

Yeah, 'cause you know how much I like fancy shit like that. I hope so - might end up punching someone's face in if I don't get some action pretty soon.

If only he knew.

After a few moments, Kodi managed to bump his glasses and they fell to the ground. With a frustrated grunt, he stooped down to pick them up, only to pause as someone approached him. The dentokinetic squinted at the person - without glasses or contacts, his eyes could be shit sometimes. "Eh?" he asked, picking up his glasses and rubbing them on his sleeve as he eyed the customer. "Yeah, what's it that you're lookin' for?" Something about the guy made Kodi feel reeeally weird. Like... He was purposefully trying to be creepy, or something.

He glanced at the shelves - they were in the cooking section, of all else. "Does she, uh, like t'bake?" he asked a little blandly. Yeah, his customer service skills still needed work, but this guy was seriously weird. He finished cleaning his glasses and shoved them back up the bridge of his nose, blinking several times as the world refocused once again.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryphon felt his phone buzz just before he went to 'greet' Kodi, and winced slightly, but smiled too, at what it said. Welp, hopefully he wouldn't be getting his face punched in, because that would not be fun, and he most definitely did not want that.

The winged boy didn't really know how blurry Kodi's vision was without his glasses on, so the fact that probably the only thing keeping his boyfriend from recognizing him was his crappy vision kind of went straight over Gryph's head. "Uh, I dunno. I'm not some chick." He said, grumpily, shrugging his shoulders. And then he felt mischievous.

He pulled out a book and looked it over - or at least, he pretended to -, before going to another section of the shelf and pulling out another book, swapping it with the first, which he slid into the second's spot. Oh, he was so helpful. He concentrated on mucking up as many books as he could while he replied, "I dunno, maybe. She defin'tely likes t'bite, though." He said with a smirk, which probably gave away one of his most obvious features - his dimple. He kept swapping around numerous books as he spoke, glancing over at his boyfriend, "Y'know what I mean?"

He was on his toes, ready for if and when Kodi recognized him. He knew how crap his disguise was, and even if Kodi didn't call him out, he was having to suppress his laughter immensely, and he was gonna die if he didn't let it out soon.

[Deleted]

Kodi narrowed his eyes at the 'customer'. He didn't like to judge a book by its cover - but that was strictly books. People, he totally judged. And he wasn't liking this one. "Well, I ain't some chick either," he mumbled, still messing with his glasses to make sure they were alright. "Sorry, I ain't much of an expert on bi- uh, girl stuff," he replied more loudly.

After he put his glasses back on, Kodi went back to the shelves, half-paying attention to the other guy as he worked on continuing to sort things. Still, his brow furrow deepened the longer the customer was around. When he glanced for a longer moment over, he realized... The bastard was purposefully messing his work up! Either that, or he was extremely challenged when it came to books. Either way, it made Kodi want to sock the guy across the face. "She ain't the only one who bites," he growled. "Can you... Please stop movin' those books around, I've been organizin' 'em all d-"

Wait. Kodi squinted, hand in midair as he paused in his work to look at the guy more closely. Now that he could see more clearly... He knew that face shape. And that ridiculous dimple. "The fuck are you doing, moron!?" he exclaimed, feeling a mixture of relief, disbelief, amusement, and frustration. "You... You went an' mucked all this shit up...!" He scowled and pushed the older boy away, lips twisted into a snarl. "The fuck kinda disguise is that? You're lucky I'm so blind without my glasses, it's awful." Nope, Gryph was not getting any sort of affection until he redid the damage he made.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryph knew very well that Kodi wasn't a girl. Ehe.

Oh, Gryphon was totally doing this on purpose (and he didn't understand most things to do with books anyway, so that probably contributed somewhere...). He was generally a nice guy, he knew that, other people probably thought it, but he liked to be annoying from time to time. The reactions from some people were amazing - but he wouldn't do this to any random person. No, he only mucked around with people he knew. He liked being a nuisance, not just plain rude. And Kodi honestly had the best reactions in the world.

His smirk only grew wider at Kodi's complaining, but when he stopped mid-sentence, Gryph paused in his actions, some random book in his hand, before turning his head to look at Kodi full on in the face. That moment of realization broke him - he burst out into a huge laugh. He had been planning on running away, but he couldn't - his own laughter was making it too difficult. Oh man, he felt terrible, but at the same time, this was so brilliant. He could hardly respond, almost falling over when Kodi pushed him. He just nodded and couldn't even form the word 'yes'. He really needed to calm down. He took a few deep breaths, all laced with chuckles, and took off his sunglasses and hat, slipping the glasses in his pocket and ruffling out his squished hair, "You prefer that I come see you in drag next time or somethin'?" He joked, still shaking his head from his mirth.

"Oh, and you can't blame me for this, you were the one that said, and I quote..." He quickly pulled out his phone and found the right message after a small amount of scrolling, "'Just makin' the shelves look pretty. Quiet day, wish somethin' excitin' would happen.'" He put the phone away, "So, I fixed both've those problems. You should be thankin' me." He teased with a wink, smiling cheekily.

If Kodi forced him, he might fix the books. If he could remember where they went. Maybe. He wasn't sure - he was too busy revelling in the moment right now to think about it too much.

[Deleted]

Argh...! Kodi should have known it was the moron to begin with, this was totally something he would do. The dentokinetic was still getting to know the older boy, but he'd been around him long enough to know what he was like and what he'd plan for the unsuspecting Kodi. Mumble mumble grumble... Maybe if he stopped giving such 'entertaining' reactions, Gryph would stop.

Mehhh... Kodi didn't really want him to though. He got entertained too, even if he didn't admit it.

"You.... You...." Gryph's laughter was contagious, and soon enough, Kodi was giggling along with him, unable to really stay angry for more than a moment. It wouldn't be that hard to put the books back. "Ugh, you're the worst." Kodi huffed and tried to stop his snickering, but it was hard with Gryphon laughing like that. "Ew, no... That is not somethin' I need t'see," he stuck his tongue out, making a 'blech' expression. He wanted his boyfriend to stay his boyfriend, thank you very much.

"Oh for the love of...!" he growled, throwing up his hands. "I wasn't askin' for this!" Kodi grumbled again and grabbed one of the books Gryph had misplaced, quickly putting it back in its proper spot. "I ain't thankin' you for messin' my job up, moron," he mumbled, pouting immensely. "I'd make you put 'em back where they go if I didn't think you'd muss 'em up even more." Sighing, he finally pulled away from the shelves to step on his tiptoes and give the taller boy a peck on the cheek. "You owe me," he declared.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

"Sure I am." Because the worst people in the world visited their boyfriends during work and made them laugh and mucked up what they'd been working on for God knows how long. Yeah, Gryphon was the worst of the worst - an awful, awful person. And thinking about drag made him think of that rehearsal with Oriel and... he was gonna be dancing with that guy wearing make-up. He shivered visibly at the reminder, "Trust me, I don't want t'show that t'you." He didn't even want to show it to himself, even if he had a minor curiosity... oh, he was totally blaming Oriel for even making him curious. No, no, he was never gonna wear make-up, bleg, no!

He began chuckling again, putting a hand over his mouth to try and make himself stop. He couldn't help it! "Hey, you have somethin' t'do, at least!" Oh man, Gryphon was just digging himself a hole. He should probably stop talking. Yeah, that was probably best. Probably. The winged boy turned the book over that was still in his hands, nodding knowingly. Books were most definitely not his forte at all. He smirked at the cheek kiss, looking at the floor, rolling his eyes shortly after at the remark, glancing over at the younger boy and letting out a breathy laugh, "Oh really? Owe you what?" He continued to look at Kodi, and bit his lip, knowing very well how to pay off this apparent 'debt', but quickly looking away after. He was working, he couldn't distract him like that... it wouldn't be fair.

Well, maybe he could, a little. But only a little. Maybe. He looked at the shelves and then looked at the book in his hand, holding it out in Kodi's general direction, "You missed a spot." He kept looking away from him, innocently looking around. Other people would take Kodi's growls and annoyance as a threat, Gryph took them as a challenge.

[Deleted]

Yep, just awful. Gryph was lucky Kodi didn't verbally abuse him any more than he already had! Mumble grumble... Well, at least the dentokinetic's manager wasn't around to see it happen, otherwise Kodi might have actually been upset, rather than just goofing around with his 'anger'. "I mean, t'be honest, I think you'd look hot with eyeliner, but that's it," he stated with a small smirk. He was of the opinion that everyone looked better with the stuff that he always wore. "But... You're gorgeous just the way you are." Duh. That was the initial reason why Kodi had even been interested in him.

"Yeah, I got more work t'do, that's what," he huffed, grabbing another misplaced book and putting it back where it belonged. "You tryin' t'get me fired? S'that it? If you missed me so much while I'm workin' you could'a just said so," he teased. Kodi grumped and looked around for more of the misplaced items, glancing back at Gryph as he spoke again. "Oh, I dunno... Food? A massage? Sex?" He smirked at the last one and looked away again, knowing very well that was a subject the older boy was still flustered about, despite them finally experiencing it together not too long ago (and it had been fucking amazing).

He glanced down as Gryph offered the book to him, taking it with a suspicious scowl up at him. ".... Guess I did..." Kodi mumbled, checking the numbers on the side before turning back to the shelf to put it in its place. He didn't know what Gryph was planning, but he didn't trust that featherbutt, not one bit.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

"...might try it sometime, then." He said, quietly. Who knows, it might actually look alright! Right? And it wouldn't be like what Kodi did (and Gryph wished he wouldn't do), he wasn't about to wear it daily. Maybe once. Maybe. He smiled at the compliment, though, "Will you ever run out've nice things t'say t'me?" He said, grinning. He just seemed to have a continuous spiel of compliments, it was ridiculous.

Gryphon kept smiling, "You're at work, work's what you're supposed t'do." He raised his eyebrows. In all honesty, he would never attempt to get Kodi fired, for whatever reason. But that much was obvious, "And make you choose between me and your books? I couldn't do that t'you." He said, sarcastically. Personally, that decision was easy. Books sucked.

But... he would never say that to Kodi's face. Nope.

Gryph could feel himself blush at the mention of sex, and tried to brush it off, but couldn't help the balloon of awkward that seemed to fill his chest and made him chuckle uneasily. He had definitely enjoyed doing... that, but it didn't make him any more socially capable of actually talking about it. "...I'll think've somethin'." He replied, smiling stiffly. Gaah.

He did have an idea. An idea that involved himself, Kodi, their lips and the floor. Gryphon liked his idea. In fact, even though Kodi was at work and he really, seriously shouldn't, he was about to go through with his idea. He took up one of Kodi's hands and kissed it, before reaching and taking the other, ignoring any possible protesting from the other boy. He pulled him close and kissed his lips slowly, and then pulled away, smiling at the boy in front of him. It was then that he saw a silhouette in his peripheral vision. Usually, thanks to Kodi's confidence being public about his affections, Gryph would be fine with this. But something was too familiar about this person. The winged boy furrowed his brow slightly and focused his eyes on-

No.

He felt the colour and the cheerfulness drop from his face as he realized who it was. They might've changed slightly in appearance - age did that to a person - but he was painfully recognizable. He began to blink rapidly and dropped Kodi's hands, his throat feeling dry, his palms sweaty. He coughed and didn't even have the willpower to form a sentence. He looked at the now approaching man, and it was definitely him. Gryph had to restrain himself from wincing as he quickly began to step away. "Sorry," He said, voice weak of its usually happy tone, as he quickly turned a corner and leaned against the bookshelves, head in his hands, as he tried to deny what he'd seen.

That wasn't fair. Now that he was happy, now that he had someone he trusted, Nick was not allowed to turn up and ruin it for him. Because surely, that was what he was going to do.

[Deleted]

"Hey, books were my first lo- uh, passion," Kodi grumbled, gently petting the cover of the hardback in his hands. "I can't just abandon them 'cause I got a moron of a boyfriend." He shot Gryph a teasing smirk as he placed the book on the shelf. Of course he was kidding. Kinda. He'd always be obsessed with books, but they definitely didn't replace the actual feeling of holding someone in his arms at night when he used to be so alone.

He snickered and chortled at Gryph's awkward response to the s-word, amazed not for the first time that he'd landed someone so innocent in that department. "You do that," he replied with a wink, not so subtly popping his butt out as he leaned down to grab another misplaced book. Ahh yes, he was so glad he wore his tight-ass jeans; they were perfect for this.

Kodi blinked and shot Gryphon another suspicious look as the older boy took his hand and kissed it, heat rising to his cheeks despite himself. "What're you...?" he asked, cautiously letting his other hand be taken up before he was met with the soft, familiar feeling of Gryph's mouth against his. He smiled and tilted his head into the gesture, forgetting momentarily that he was at work and his manager likely wouldn't smile upon him doing such a thing. Oh well. It didn't last long enough anyway, and Kodi was about to slyly ask for more when Gryph's attention seemed to gravitate elsewhere.

"Oh, hey Nick," he said without much interest in his voice, at first ignorant to what was going through Gryph's mind. Kodi didn't know the guy well, but he seemed alright. He liked books, so that made him alright in the dentokinetic's mind. He looked back to Gryph, and jolted slightly as he saw how much the winged boy's expression and demeanor had changed since the arrival of his coworker. "... Gryph? What's wr-" He was cut off as his boyfriend seemed to crumple in on himself and apologized, before hiding around the corner. Kodi shot a baffled look to where he had disappeared. "Babe....?"

He glanced at Nick with a new sort of wariness before following after Gryphon, settling his hands on the older boy's hips and trying to catch his eyes. "Hey, Gryph, what's wrong?" he asked quietly. "Did I do somethin'?" He didn't know what it could have been, but he was confused as to what else might have set this off.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryph held a hand over his heart and sighed dramatically, looking away, "You break my heart, Kodi." He joked, shaking his head. Gryphon knew he could show his emotion through his work, show how he felt, how it affected him, whatever the situation. Dance was a good medium for that - even if you couldn't dance, it seemed... easy to relate to another who could. Their action, his actions... made sense. You could see the frustration, the anger, or the happiness and the affection. It was brilliant how he could show it so clearly through dance, but his words always lost him. Well, not always. But they seemed to run away more often than not.

He was getting better at dealing with hearing the word ssss... that word, and the topics surrounding it, but you couldn't expect him to suddenly be fine with it (even if he spent a lot of his time around Kodi now, and Kodi being... the way he was - no problems there). Didn't mean he couldn't... enjoy the view. And comment on it. He chuckled, "You couldn't be any more subtle, could you?" He was not complaining in the slightest.

As much as he liked the moments of raw passion, when they practically couldn't hold themselves back, the more intimate moments... he almost preferred those slower moments. Where time slowed down for a few seconds to let you grasp it, before rolling gently back on. And Gryphon was certain he would never get tired of that feeling when their lips came together... it was like heaven. But then again, heaven didn't belong on Earth, where there were corrupt souls and twisted minds. Minds like Nick's.

Unless he had changed. But unlike with most people, Gryph was not willing to forgive and forget what he had done to him. Even if he knew of how the whole experience had helped him... no-one ever deserved to feel like he had. It wasn't fair, or right. As Gryphon actually let himself realize who this was, and let the memories come back to the front of his mind, he couldn't help but blank out all of his senses. Well, he saw Kodi's mouth move and heard something, but it was just as loud as his breathing at that point. The look of concern was noted, but he did nothing to counter it, or cover what he felt. For once, he couldn't hide it, at all.

Nick... watched. He knew he had to do nothing else. And besides, he wasn't about to corrupt the simple image he had created in Kodi's eyes, no matter how simple an image it actually was. If he said anything now, there was the chance of him ruining things before they even began.

Had he known about Gryph and Kodi being together? No. This was just a new opportunity. Or at least, another stab at an old one.

Gryphon tried to hold himself back from panicking too much - he had only had a panic attack once in his life, and he was not planning on having another, but... but it was too much to cope with. He registered Kodi's presence, by tensing and taking a sharp breath as soon as he felt the boy touch him. He couldn't help it, the strongest memories, the ones brought closest to Gryph's conscious mind at the moment, were of being touched, but not in the comforting manner that Kodi was portraying. The winged boy knew it was Kodi, and Kodi wouldn't hurt him, he... he wouldn't... he put his hands on the sides of his face, away from his eyes, and looked down at his boyfriend.

"Nothin'," he spoke hesistantly, a dullness in his voice, "...nothin's wrong." He was lying and it was so obvious. His stomach churned at his own untruth and he looked at the floor, unable to meet Kodi's eyes. He covered his face again as soon as the younger one asked if it was him, shaking his head sharply. "It's not you, it's nothin' t'do with you, I promise." At least that was true. His arms folded and he looked down, "Sorry, guess I'm just havin' a weird day, or somethin'. Finals and shit, I dunno..." And he was back to lying.

He didn't want to explain to Kodi what was really going on... not because he didn't trust him, it was just... too painful. And it was unfair, the dentokinetic had enough to deal with, without Gryphon loading his own petty problems on his back.

[Deleted]

"Dunno what you're talkin' 'bout," Kodi replied innocently, still being incredibly 'subtle' with his rump. He knew Gryphon liked it. And that he had still liked it when they had... Mmm. Kodi shouldn't be thinking about this stuff at work, he would have to excuse himself for a while if he did.

But he did enjoy the softer, sweeter moments too. Kodi didn't think he would be the type, but the sucker had got him good, and he was too far in to back out now, even if he wanted to.

For now, Kodi had no idea what was going on. His brow was furrowed in confusion and he tried to put together the few, faint pieces of information he was given, but nothing really clicked. Had Nick triggered something, or was it just coincidence? Hmmm...

Had he known the real meaning behind all of this, who Nick was, what he had done to Gryphon.... His coworker would be getting to know the ground very well very soon, as well as Kodi's knuckles and possibly even the hospital, even Kodi's rage didn't go even further than that.

His brow furrowed even more as Gryphon seemed to flinch at his touch. Kodi brought his hands away from the boy's hips, not wanting him to feel trapped or anything, and instead cupped his palms against the older boy's cheeks, wishing he had empathy or telepathy or something that would help him know what to do. "Like shit nothin's wrong," he mumbled; his voice was soft, despite the somewhat harsh words. His fingers slipped away from Gryph's face as the winged boy covered his face, and Kodi ended up just hovering his hands awkwardly, unsure of the best way to comfort Gryph with whatever was going on. All he knew was he was really worried.

"Gryph, I..." Kodi bit his lip and looked to the side, wondering how to comfort someone when he didn't even know what the problem was. "Babe, you can tell me what it is, you can... You can trust me, you know?" He swallowed and added,"'Course, you don't have t'tell me anythin', but... I don't know how t'help if y'don't." He peeked up at Gryphon again. "'Less, you can tell me what I can do t'make it better?"

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Sucker. Ha.

Feeling that fuzzy feeling in his core, that made him melt and feel like a tween girl, that feeling was pure gold, and priceless, at the same time.

The whole ambiguity of the situation was purposeful, and the only coincidence here was that Nick happened to be working at the same place that Kodi was now employed at. Was his reaction a coincidence? No, it was as a result of Nick's re-introduction, something which should never have happened, in his opinion. Why was he still here anyway? Why couldn't he run back to San Diego or just some-place else? Why stay here? (Gryph liked it here as much as he did Seattle, maybe even more, but he would be a lot happier if Nick decided it was the worst place on Earth)

And Gryphon knew that Kodi could go off the rails, if provoked. Nick was a huge provocation, so... he probably hadn't seen the worst of Kodi. But he knew he was capable of hurting others. But it was only... Only a few small hits... Right? Nothing for him to get upset over... Gryph definitely couldn't risk it. Especially not with Nick anywhere nearby.

He wanted to feel the gentle touches, the closeness, God damnit, he wanted to be comforted! Why was his body betraying him? He couldn't even look Kodi in the eye, what had happened to him?! He... needed to be calm. He breathed, slowly, regularly, calmly... calm. He went to look at Kodi, but he ended up looking at his arms, hair, chest, anything that wasn't his face. He sighed... his mouth felt dry, the words he wanted to say were too difficult to form. In place of speaking, he nodded, trying to show that he did trust Kodi... it was really hard, and he hated it.

...he wanted to just spill it all out. Say a million words, tell Kodi everything that had happened. Because even though he had talked to people, he hadn't really talked about it. He talked around it. He'd never told anyone the full story. Why? Because... because it wasn't worth their time. He didn't want to make anyone else upset or worried or scared for him or anything like that... besides, he could cope. See, it'd been two years and he was... okay, he wasn't fine. There was something wrong. Something he needed to fix. But surely, surely he could fix it on his own?

So instead of coming out with it all, he forced his body to co-operate, and made eye contact with Kodi. And then he found himself wrapping his arms around the other boy, holding him close, "...I don't think you can make it better." He admitted, voice croaking. He took another breath, "Me and... Nick don't... have the best... r-relationship..." No, he was not about to cry over nothing. He'd just seen somebody, that was all. Nothing to cry over. "...that's all." He felt his stomach twist, but he ignored it.

He didn't know what else to say about it. If he said any more, he risked going into the details he was trying to avoid, trying to forget. If Kodi asked... he didn't know. If Kodi asked, Gryphon would answer, with something. Maybe it would be true, maybe it would be a white lie. Gryph would never full on lie to Kodi... would he?