This was chaos. James hated how everyone was shouting over each other. Victor wasn’t yelling, but he was now loudly trying to call Freckle back, and getting more frustrated with each ignored summons. James sighed. He stalked over to pluck the cat from the stranger’s arms and poured him into Victor’s just as Oliver popped his head in the now wide-open door. 

“Guys, stop shouting,” Ollie said. “Everyone can hear you. You know Mrs. Beasly takes a nap at 2 PM.” 

James grimaced, they’d already gotten noise complaints just from watching TV too late. Mrs. Beasly took her naptime damn serious. They’d been lucky to score a three-bedroom apartment in this neighborhood, even if they were surrounded by crotchety seniors. James didn’t want to get evicted. Victor didn’t share his concerns. He also didn’t wait around, now that his needs were satisfied. He marched out of the apartment with his fat pet and his bag of chips.

“Why is everyone in my apartment?! Who are you people?” The pretty guy demanded. He was getting up now, with the other guy’s help. He didn't seem seriously injured, just sore and butt-hurt.

“We’re your neighbors!” Ollie announced cheerily as if they hadn’t all been shouting seconds ago. “I’m Oliver, that’s James, the guy who just left with the cat is Victor. The cat is Freckle. This is an odd introduction,” Oliver sighed, the oppressive awkwardness getting to even him. “What’s your name?” 

“Connor.” 

“Nice to meet you!” Ollie beamed, encouraged by the response.

Just then a tall white man in his thirties swept in, handsome and expensively dressed. He cast the same icy blue eyes as Connor around the room, taking in the situation. They were obviously family, and despite himself, James felt relieved. He strode straight to the Asian man and put a possessive hand on his shoulder.  “Inho, what happened? Why is there a crowd?”

“Ah, it was… I can explain.” Inho, now James knew his name, fumbled his words. He was blinking rapidly and clearly upset. Now that he wasn’t facing James so aggressively, he looked stressed. The pair gazed at each other for a moment as if they were the only people in the room.

James felt like an intruder for the first time. “Let’s go,” he hissed at Ollie.

Ollie blinked as if waking up from a dream, and the two of them spun to escape the tense apartment. A moment later, Oliver poked his head in the room again. “By the way, you can come visit us, since we’re neighbors now and all that.” 

Connor was curled into a ball on the edge of the couch now, wiping his eyes. “Get out already!” he shouted.

“We were just trying to help,” James muttered as he followed Ollie back to their place. But he didn’t say it loud enough for anyone to hear. 

******

Connor scrubbed at his face with his sleeve, trying to stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. The floor was hardwood and his tailbone hurt like a bitch. Stephen and Inho were talking to each other tenderly as usual, like both of them had been plucked out of a stupid romance movie. Connor could almost see their hair blow in the wind. Gross. 

“What happened here, why is Connor crying?” Stephen asked, cupping Inho’s cheek. 

Inho pressed his lips together and looked down, avoiding Stephen’s eyes and his question. “We just had a little disagreement, and um,” Inho hesitated a moment, “he got upset.” 

 Connor wanted to roll his eyes to the back of the head. Was Inho trying to help? If so, he was doing a shit job. As long as Connor had known him, Inho had always been a terrible liar.

“What kind of disagreement?” Stephen prodded. 

Inho chewed his lower lip before he spoke, “Well,” he tried again, “I’m not sure, really. He must have misunderstood something, and he ah… put his lips on mine. And I didn’t mean to, but I just instinctively… threw him.”

“Pfttt.” Stephen laughed with absolutely zero humor, and Inho cringed, turning an apologetic grimace on Connor, who flinched. Even he pitied Connor for what was about to happen.

“You threw him? That’s why he’s crying?” Stephen laughed again.

“Yeah. It’s fine, it was just a–” Inho started in a small voice, but Stephen cut him off. He turned his cool stare on Connor instead.

“And you.” He was pissed. “What did you think you were doing? Trying to steal my lover?” With each word, the temperature in the room seemed to drop a degree.

“Of course not!” Connor hissed back, “Why would I want him?!” There was only one way to save this now. His mind spun furiously, grinding out a plan. He’d always been rude to Inho, maybe he could sell this as some sort of plot to save Stephen from a bad relationship? That might work.

Inho twitched at the venom in Connor’s words. He looked hurt. Connor hated himself, but he continued, “I was trying to help you!” 

“Is that so?” Stephen asked, cocking his head with false curiosity. “You wanted to help me? Please go on. I’m so curious.”

 Connor hadn’t faced Stephen when he was angry before, but he’d heard about it from his father on one of the rare occasions he acknowledged he had a brother. Connor’s dad was begrudgingly admiring of Stephen’s ability to “tear someone apart” with just his stare and his tone of voice.

 Connor shifted nervously where he sat, “He’s not good enough for you,” he muttered. “I thought if you came in and saw…”

“Inho do you mind waiting in the car while I talk to my nephew?” Stephen asked, giving Inho a kiss on the top of his head. Inho nodded, and turning a final look of confusion and sadness on Connor, he left the apartment.

Connor started to cry again, this was too much. Stephen was going to scream at him, he was going to…

“Stop with the fake tears, you’re embarrassing yourself.” 

Connor twitched as if slapped. “You never take my side,” he whimpered.

“Why would I? Let’s get one thing straight.” Stephen showed his teeth in the facsimile of a smile. “You are not, and will never be, my priority. It’s him. It’s always going to be him.”

Connor couldn’t help it. He started to sob. Stephen’s lip curled in contempt. “You brought this on yourself. There’s a limit to the nonsense I’ll take from you.” Leaving harsh words hovering in the air between them, Stephen left his nephew all alone in the hollow apartment.