Once they had agreed that night, they went to bed content, Kit snuggled up by Thorn. However, they were promptly awoken by the constant ringing of Kit’s phone. If he wasn’t in such a good mood, he would have muted the call but assumed it was also Pat calling and sleepily answered the call. Thorn just groans in his sleep and rests his head on Kit’s shoulder, wrapping his arm around the younger. On the phone however, was not Pat’s familiar accent, it was a male voice with a bit of Thai in his dialect and sounded older than Pat. He also called Kit by his old last name, the name he no longer associated himself with.  It immediately sobered him. 

"Hello, is this Kittichat Khadpho?" The man speaking sounded lost, like this was his last chance, which couldn't mean anything good and it had made Kit feel even more worried each passing second. He sat up in the bed and turned on the lamp on the bedside, alerting Thorn.

"Who is this?" The last thing he was going to do was answer the question without any information on who that person was. 

"My name is King Manu, I'm a Private Investigator assigned by Kannika Averyson, sorry, Kannika Khadpho." The man sighs and there's a sound in the background, "I am sorry Mister Khadpho, Miss Averyson told me to contact you if there was an emergency.”

Kit’s heart sinks as he hears his older sister’s name. It had been nearly a decade since he had seen her. While Kit had no sort of connection to his Parents ever since he’d been kicked out, he had regretted not keeping in contact with Nika. She was his older sister and sometimes he wondered if she would accept him if she knew he was in a relationship with a man. His Father had called him every horrid word in the books and his mother had been disappointed in who he was and when his mind went to darked places, he had convinced himself that she would want nothing to do with him. He’d never expected her to actually look for him. It makes him feel a little better.

“I'm afraid there's been an accident, sir."

Kit remembers clearly the confusion that quickly turned into fear. He didn't have time to question that his sister had a Private Investigator that apparently had found him. He couldn't question why she wanted to find him and what was happening. Thorn had seemingly noticed the change in Kit, because he was up and trying to get answers out of Kit. Kit felt his eyes widen and he was clenching the bed sheets. Thorn took his other hand and squeezed, offering a bit of comfort. 

Kit felt like there was lead in his throat as the words came out, "What happened to my sister?"

The man on the call answers tiredly, as if this was also painful for him to admit,"There's been an accident, Mister Khadpho. A- a drunk driver didn't see them- Miss Averyson and her husband, they didn't make it." 

In the dim light of their bedroom, Kit feels his world narrow and fresh tears well in his eyes. Kit hadn't seen his sister in almost a decade only to find out she was dead from a drunk driver accident back in the United States. He was moving entirely on habit as the man continued to tell him details. Kit moves the phone from his ear and puts it on speaker as he slides out of the bed, walks to the closet and takes out a small luggage bag. 

“I am so sorry, Mr. Khadpho. I’m currently at Washington Hospital Center, the Doctors confirmed their time of death less than half an hour ago. I-I know this is sudden and you weren’t in contact with Ms. Khadpho, but I hope you can come.” The Private Investigator pauses, “There’s the issue of their son, little Kal.”

Thorn is wide awake and cautious, but the moment he hears the news on the phone, he freezes and rushes to Kit’s side. Kit stills and drops the clothes, only to sink to the floor as the tears fall with him and Thorn holds him. Not only that, but she was married and had a son, a little boy with a name starting with K, two year old Kal Kasimpob Averyson. Kit feels like he couldn’t breathe and the sobs get loud enough that he is sure PI King can hear him, cause the man apologizes and says he’ll send the rest of the information via text and email soon. Thorn cradles him as he cries. 

Cries hard enough that his body shakes. His big sister is dead, the girl with waves of ebony hair he had spent chasing after in the fields of flowers and had made promises to stay beside, was gone. He hadn’t even seen her since she had left to study at University when she was just 18, taller than fourteen year old Kit and full of curiosity. She was leaving their hometown and following her dreams on her own. She was also leaving him behind and as much as teenage Kit loved her, she hadn’t known about the fear and the pain that her leaving had left him with. His Father took his frustrations out on him and his Mother when she was gone.

Kit took to himself, writing at any moment he could. He didn’t play with the boys in school, didn’t like running about and kicking a ball to get sweaty, didn’t like subjects like science and had no interest in kissing the cute girls. He read with his mother and liked to help her cook in the Kitchen. His mother, as kind and loving as she tried to be, didn’t understand him as he got older and wanted to pursue Writing. She was also the first to find out he was gay and the first to tell him to hide such a thing about himself. Maybe she did it to protect him, cause his father was far from a good man, but it just made him feel even worse at that vulnerable age.

 A lot of times, he wished he would have just called Nika back then, and stayed in connection while she was in University. But, his insecurities got the best of him and he didn’t want to be more of a burden. So, when he was finally booted out on the streets of San Francisco with nothing but his laptop and the clothes on his back, he had no way to contact her. He did, however, have Pat’s email and from there, their makeshift father and son relationship began. He had written her off, didn’t even try looking for her all these years cause he simply thought she’d be better off without him, when she had thought the opposite.

When Thorn had finally gotten Kit off the floor, he set him on the bed, kissed his head and held him until the sun began to rise. Kit was finally present enough to think and had realized that Thorn had packed a suitcase for them, booked a hotel and a flight to Washington. They showered together, almost ten minutes long and it was mostly Thorn whispering how much he loved him and holding him. They were finally dressed and out of the door before six thirty. Kit and Thorn had to take the quickest flight to the United States, an eighteen hour flight with barely any sleep- or else his sister's son- his nephew- would end up on the American System. The fact that Kannika had a son was still slowly sinking in, but what was worse was the fact that he had lost his parents at such a young age.

 They met the PI King, who was Thai American and a friend of Kannika's husband, he had a warm smile, though pained by the loss of his friends and was almost as large as Thorn. He spoke Thai with them, since Kit wasn’t in the right mind to try processing English again and guided them to a car he had waiting outside the huge Airport. PI King and Thorn did a lot of the talking for the most part of them being in the first few hours of them being in the US. It was nearing lunch when he and Thorn had left the Hotel they had booked into to visit the Hospital Mortuary. In the Hospital Kit felt numb, he sat patiently waiting for his name to be called with King and Thorn at his sides. 

When a female Doctor finally called a butched rendition of his name, he stood like a robot and was led into the Mortuary. The cold of the room felt exactly like how was feeling in that moment and when the Doctor revealed his sister’s lifeless body, the tears were blurring his vision again. He nodded to any questions that the Doctor had and accepted her offer of condolences without much thought. She then left, giving him a moment of silence by himself. All Kit could do was hug himself as the pain in his throat grew. His Pii Saao, she had clearly grown and changed over the years, he could tell even with her pale skin. She was still beautiful. 

Beside her on a table laying lifeless, was her loving Husband, Lionel Averyson. From what Kit had gotten from PI King, he was a Defense Lawyer and a caring person. He loved his family, which was all Kit could ask for, for his big sister. He wished he could have met him before, get the chance to properly bond and know his Brother in Law. He would never though, it was far too late for that sort of wish. All he had now was regrets and the son of his big sister. That thought followed him as he left the Mortuary. He was a bit surprised to meet Pat outside and he was immediately in front of him. Kit fell into the familiar safety of his arms, hiding his tears. 

“It’s okay, it will be okay, Kiddo.” Pat had told him and he wished it was true.

Pat joined them as they left the Hospital, Kit wished it was on better terms that he was seeing his mentor again. PI King tried to answer most of the questions he had. They had sat down in a small cute cafe that had a bit of Thai culture and finally spoke about Kannika. Apparently, she started looking for him in the US years ago, but didn't know that he had moved back to Thailand. Their mother was American Thai and for most of his childhood, they lived in Thailand. Then when he was nearly thirteen, his family decided to move to the US, since they already had family there. 

PI King told him that Kannika had assigned him to find Kit and King did manage to find him, almost two years before. However, she didn't take the chance to contact him and told King to find Kit in case of any emergency. Sadly, that was the case and King didn't have much information other than that, but he did leave with Kit, his older sister's journal. The worn purple journal that she’d been documenting important moments in her life since she started dating Lionel. In it, it told him almost everything he needed to know about his sister, her family and what happened.

 Her emotions when she was having bad days at work or whenever she had a good day.  She wrote down her fears and how she felt like she had failed him for not knowing that he was so alone and now gone in the wind since he’d been kicked out. She had tried to find him on her own when she realized that their parents had disowned him, but had come up empty handed. Possibly because Kit had changed his last name from Khadpho to simply Khad when he turned eighteen and had become a very private person. He went by two pseudonyms when Writing and didn't have many friends or stayed connected with family. 

Kannika talks about how she misses him in her journal and how much she wishes she had been for him. Apparently, the moment she found out he was an Author, she'd been reading his books, she talked about how proud of him she'd been and how much she enjoyed the books. She documents her journey with love and how their parents didn't want anything to do with her since she married an American man. She ranted about that, especially considering how they were mixed. She wished he was there when she graduated and whenever she felt lost, she wished he was there to give her inspiration when she had been nervous on her Wedding Day. She hoped he was happy and wished she had been there to share and be a part of his happiness. 

She continues on about how much she’s nervous about being a Mother, she promises that if her son is only a bit different, she’ll love him. She tells the story about her first Pride Walk, how beautiful it was and how it had made her cry in a public bathroom when she saw adults screaming at people trying to love one another. She hoped that she’d get the chance to go with him. Then she shares how she met King and how Leo, her husband, suggested looking for Kit. King had connections in Thailand. It had taken almost eight months for them to find him and someone had photographed Kit with Thorn at a dinner date in Chiang Mai. She writes that she'd never seen him smile that wide since he was little and chasing her in that flower field. 

She felt like she didn't want to disturb that peace. God, they were really siblings. So, she left him alone and let him be happy. It took him a year to get through the journal, cause he cried probably weekly whenever he tried to read it. She had clearly still loved him dearly and was even willing to let him have his own life after everything that had happened with their family. Kit finds himself rereading it whenever he felt like he was sinking back into himself. He even made a promise to read the entire thing for Kal as he grows older. The last entry his sister wrote is almost a week before the accident and it’s about how she wants Kal to meet her Uncle Kit one day.

 At the Funeral two weeks later, Kit is numb again. The rain and the cold beating against the umbrella is nothing compared to how lifeless he felt it that moment. He had thought he had known pain and loss, that was nothing compared to the moment he had to bury his sister like she had requested, besider her loving husband. He squeezed Thorn’s hand in his a little tighter and hugged baby Kal closer, shielding him from something he didn’t get as yet. He makes a silent promise to visit her again, with her son, one day in the future. 

King and Pat helped Kit set up adoption for Kal and since Kit had citizenship there and Kal was his nephew by blood, it was a pretty easy process. Not to mention, Lionel was an only child and his parents had passed since he was in his twenties. He didn’t have any close enough family to collect Kal or even fight for him. Before all of it was finalized though, Kit and Thorn had to talk. Thorn was initially very nervous, Kit and him had briefly spoken about adoption in their second year of being together and he initially didn’t have any plans for children . As usual he tried to hide his anxiousness, but he was worried about this situation. 

They were bringing a child into their relationship, they were becoming Parents.