𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄

ᴏɴᴇ ʜᴜɴᴅʀᴇᴅ ᴛᴡᴏ

𝗞ai's eyes tracked Mason's every movement—from the haphazard tossing of his belongings into a half-opened suitcase on the bed, to the three seconds he took to slide into and tie his Vans. He watched without reacting, carefully considering his husband's feelings as he raced across the room to collect himself in more ways than one.

Arms lying transversely across his chest, his shoulders pressed to the ajar door, he squinted his eyes and waited for the waves to crash into the shore. It had been just shy of five minutes since Mason's call with Rueben ended with his phone shattered on the ground. Kai had already put in the order for a new one, but he didn't mention it.

He knew that Mason's reaction had to do with the death of his friend. When he visited Rueben a few weeks ago, prior to the engagement, he got the four-one-one of what Franki was going through. It made sense that she passed, but he couldn't imagine how it felt to lose two friends one after the other—the wound from losing Isaac was still a gaping hole.

"What're you doing?" Mason asked over his shoulder, barely pausing.

"I'm standing here."

"Well, stop it. Pack a fucking bag."

Kai uprooted from his spot and walked toward his closet to grab his suitcase as well, but continued the conversation despite his unspoken knowledge of it. Mason had a bad habit of bottling things up. If he didn't get him to open up, he wouldn't until the next stressful thing grabbed ahold of him.

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

"Home is where you are," Kai stated, settling his body next to his.

Mason stalled at the sound of his words, enough that his hands palmed the edge of the bed and he sighed. Kai, knowing he was a man of comfort in physicality, rather than those of words, ducked under his caged arms and swooped into his air space.

He could see a mild annoyance toy with his facial expressions, but he did not express verbal disinterest as Kai straightened the both of them with his height. He pushed his fingers into Mason's hair at the same time his hand latched to the dip in the small of his back, sheltering and welding him to his body.

Mason's body shuddered with a loaded breath.

And then he broke.

Kai held him in place long enough that the minutes melted into each other.

That had been almost two hours ago.

Now he lay sprawled across the length of Emmet's private jet's bed in the back room, a remote spinning in his fingers as he watched whatever channel streamed on the tiny flat screen in the corner. With a hand tucked under the back of his head, and shoes chilling on the mattress, he was completely at ease.

That was until Mason decided to return from the main cabin.

Kai turned his head in time to see the goofy grin plastered to his newly-weds face at the same time he noticed a sparkly box hidden in the grasp of Mason's hand.