C7 Art Major

That night was only one of many. Kailan had been spared of the repercussions, managed his way out of the place and gotten home before his parents had even stopped their bickering. It wasn't the worst thing they'd done, not by a long shot—but it was one of the few times they'd ever gotten caught in the act.

Johnathan was never one to punish Vincent. He never cared enough—he didn't have the time for it. So he wrote a quick cheque and instructed Suzy to purchase a high-scale penthouse on the other side of town. It was intended to squeeze some distance in between the ruffians, and in some ways, it worked. Kailan was no longer within walking distance, and meeting up proved to be a challenge on most occasions, but the move did little to separate them. Vincent lived in lesser-luxury for nearly a year before the place was burned down to rubble and the entire complex bulldozed. There wasn't much left to save, so the city knocked down the last remaining walls and started fresh.

Not long after that, Kailan left.

After reading the ceiling for a long while, Vincent finally decided that any additional sleep wouldn't be in his favor. It was nearing ten anyway, the sun pestering him as it poked through the gaps in the blinds—panels that Archibald had so courteously bent and snapped off in his many ventures to the window sill.

Since Kailan had shown up again, his dreams had been relentless. They were always memories, some vague, some as detailed as the first time he'd experienced them. Some made no sense to him—strange things, like the days when Kailan had taken up tutoring him. He only remembered staring with dreary eyes into a perplexing math formula, Kailan's words swimming in one ear and out the other, like salmon too mentally incapacitated to make it upstream. Dreams came to him all the time. Sometimes they were nightmares, sometimes abstract fantasies. Lately though, they were all of the past.

He turned his attention to Kailan's bed, but it had been left vacant. The sheets were an unkempt mess, and Archibald laid curled up in whatever warmth was left behind. It'd been two days since Kailan had dropped in unexpectedly, and Vincent still couldn't differentiate dream from reality. Just a week ago, he wasn't all that sure that Kailan was still alive. It made more sense that he was just some strange figment of Vincent's imagination. But he was very much alive. Alive, awake and making clatter in the next room over.

Tired and groggy, Vinny rubbed at his blurry vision and slipped out of bed. As he left the bedroom and turned the corner, he froze in a double-take. "The hell is this?"

Kailan sat on the floor, a plethora of colorful paints surrounding him. As he looked to Vinny, he smiled around the paintbrush he held in his mouth, his hands busy tying his hair up out of his face.

"A mess." His voice was muffled as he gazed upon the canvas that lay damp with paint on the floor in front of him.

Organization was never a strong point of Kailan's, and it showed in the messy array of paints and brushes strewn about—and the colorful splotches that sprinkled his skin. At least he had thought to keep paint off of the floor.

Taking the paintbrush out of his mouth, Kailan wiped at his cheek, leaving a small streak of purple. "Oh, yeah, you never knew I was into art," he said with a small laugh, moving back to view the unfinished painting. Despite the array of colorful paints he chose, the work itself seemed dismal.

A man with a wolf's skull as a head was the main focus of the painting, its hands covering the eye sockets as it sat on what appeared to be a couch. The table beside it had pills spilled over, a cocktail of drugs laid about. The colors were bright and pleasant; ironic choices for such a distressing piece.

He chuckled a bit. "The concept was cool in my head, I dunno now."

Vincent was still blinded by sleep, and it made the painting all the more difficult to understand. He assessed it with one cocked brow, like he was trying to comprehend a piece of ancient literature. "Military school really fucked you up, didn't it?"

Kailan started laughing, putting his face into his hand for a moment before he succumbed to a nod. "Yeah, you can say that." He wore a grin as he stood to his feet and lifted up the canvas. "What do you even know of art?" Kailan scoffed jokingly, placing the thing out of the way so it could dry.

"I know that it's for pretentious beatniks and con-artists." Vincent made his way to the kitchen, snatching up a hot pot of coffee and pouring himself a steaming mugful. "And apparently drugged-up collegiate roommates. Thought you never used, only sold." He grinned, leaning over the counter as he took a drink. The stuff was weak compared to what he was used to. He wondered just why the coffee tasted different when Kailan made it.

"That you know of," Kai said offhandedly. He looked to Vinny with a fleeting glance, and knelt to gather his brushes. "Though, you look more the part of druggy college kid than I do." A snicker escaped him. "Last I remember, you wore polo shirts and reeked 'upper class'."

He carried his supplies into the kitchen, unloading the brushes into the sink to be cleaned. Filling a glass of water, Kailan leaned back against the counter, raising it to his lips. "Though I guess we all change, huh?" he spoke against the brim.

"You know me. Anything to piss off Johnathan," Vinny said, pulling himself up to sit on the counter. He ran his hand up his biceps, sweeping along the ink-sewn skin. "Nothing did the trick like these. No one would take me a day before I turned eighteen, though." He laughed something small and annoyed. "Scared they'd get sued for tattooing a minor without parental consent, and knowing the asshole, he'd have done it too. It worked though. Ruined his image, I guess. He wanted me to get them laser removed, so I got more." Vincent laughed, taking a bitter sip from his mug. "The whole pretty-boy thing never really suited me anyways."

Kailan's brows jumped in response. "Hm, yeah, the whole punk asshole look suits you. Now you look the part of a bad influence."

"I've always been a bad influence, but 'punk'?" Vinny scoffed at the term. "I'm not that gaudy." He took a quick side-glance at Kailan's painting. The way the colors bled, spilling into one another but never quite mixing, just like oil and water—it was a hidden talent if he'd ever seen one. "You artists keep making your art, and I'll appreciate it in my own way. Besides, you can't tell me there weren't any army boys with love-stamps back in military school."

"There were a lot of them. And it's not like I'm against tattoos, for one thing. I actually have one too." Kailan said with a small laugh, though he didn't feel very inclined to prove it. There was a reason it was hidden from plain sight. "I'm sure a few of those guys got sleeves just to show off their biceps."

Vinny snickered at the thought of Kailan taking commands from anyone. "Military school's the last place I could picture you." He paused for a long moment, staring into the surface of his coffee.

Already, it was becoming cold. He wanted to ask—to find out just why Kailan had been sent away, but likely it was his own damn fault. Separate, they weren't the most innocent of the bunch, but to put them together was like pouring fuel on an open flame. It was likely because of him that Kailan was hauled off. His fault, because they were addicted to the fun of the blue and red lights nipping at their tails. Addicted to the thrill of walking atop a wire. And yet, that addiction only existed when they were together. Bad influences, that's all they were to each other. So, was it his fault? Had Kailan's parents finally snapped one day and sent him off? He didn't want to know, quite frankly. Military school sounded like hell, and he was never fond of guilt.

"Talk to your parents since then?" he directed his angst into an entirely different question.

Kailan nearly choked in laughter, the noise instead coming out as an ugly snort. "No." His tone suggested that Vincent's question was a foolish one, but it didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out just why his parents were a touchy subject. "I don't see a point in talking to those who, well, sent me to a fucking military school." He closed his mouth, a bothered look lingering long after his words were gone. A moment hardly passed before he pulled on a big grin and shrugged. "Who cares, it's not like I was dependent on them anyways. But what about you, I'm guessing daddy dearest is still more focused on his work ethic?"

"Something like that." Vinny set his coffee aside and slid from the counter, crossing his arms as he strolled a step closer to Kailan. "So why are you back? You sure as hell didn't show up just to surprise me."

"College," Kailan answered quickly. "Got scholarships and grants for the school of my choice, and the university called to confirm my enrollment. Funny, I didn't even remember applying to this place. But they said my dorm expenses would be paid in full, so here I am. God knows I love all of the fucking rain here," he said with heavy sarcasm. Then Kai let his hair fall, brushing the strands out of his eyes and giving a thoughtful smile. "Though I guess being bunked with you was a pleasant surprise. What is it they say, 'fate works in mysterious ways' or some bullshit?"

"I doubt fate had anything to do with this." Vincent wiped a hand over his face with a sigh. It all seemed farfetched to him. The thought that they were reunited by chance left a skeptic taste on his tongue. Maybe it was at the hands of Kailan's parents. Or maybe Vincent owed someone something, and this was only an attempt to even the score. Whatever it was, it felt like a gift to have his best friend back, but in the two days Kailan had been living there, school had occupied much of their time. There wasn't a lot left to let the situation soak in.

"Get dressed." Vinny gave him a pat on the cheek, grimacing as wet paint stuck to his palm. He scowled and wiped it on Kailan's shirt, calling aloud, "We're going to a party later," as he headed off to the bedroom.

Kailan frowned to himself, and setting his glass aside, he wet a rag to wipe the purple smudge from his cheek. Then he made his way to their room, where Vincent was already wrangling on a fresh shirt.

"So, a party," Kailan began, searching through his bag for a change of clothing. He still hadn't bothered to unpack. College had just started after all; it would take a few days to settle in. Especially under their circumstances."Gonna introduce me to your friends?"

"If you don't scare them off." Vincent watched as Kailan slipped through the bedroom door. Soon, he could hear the tap running and assumed he must be ridding the paint from his arms. Hustling into his clothing, Vinny scooped up Archibald and catered to the hungry feline.

He heard the crack of the floorboards, and Vinny turned to find Kailan leaning a shoulder on the doorframe, clad in a fresh attire. The long-sleeved shirt he wore cut lower than the last, and Vinny couldn't keep his sights from lingering—passing over his defined bones, taking in the broad of his neck. Kailan had grown so much.

"What?" Kailan asked, catching his stare.

Vinny shook his head and gave his knees a pat. "Up for lunch?" He wasn't all that hungry, but there was so much more to catch up on. So many things Kailan had missed out on, and a lot he himself wanted to inquire about the past three years.

"Sure, why not? I don't have classes today," Kailan replied, wrinkling his nose as Archibald gave him a feisty hiss. "Ugly cat."

Vincent smirked, though it was humble and hidden by his crouched position. As Archibald dug into food, he received a gentle scratch behind the ears. "Be good."

Vincent pushed off of his knees and rose to his feet, swiping his keys, wallet, and carton of cigarettes from the kitchen counter. He looked to Kailan with a keen grin, a small chuckle bubbling up. "Cadet, huh?" He shook his head, musing over the idea. Kailan shot him a glare, but his snickering hardly yielded. "Cadet Kailan."

"Shut the hell up," Kailan retorted, but his throat bobbed in mirth as well.

"Come on soldier." Vincent gave him a push to the door. "I'll pay."

"Yeah, no shit you'll pay."