Summer seemed to slip past everyone in a wave of pleasure and fun for everyone. Mika’s classes were going well and he was happy to have Gen and Kana help him with his homework from time to time. Gen was gaining a few more hours a week at work, which seemed to conveniently coincide with Mika’s class schedule so they didn’t have to miss out on too much time together. The Parkers absolutely loved having Mika with them. He helped Kana in the kitchen, kept up chores with Gen, and enjoyed chatting with Don out on the porch. He really had become one of the family, as though he was always meant to be with them.

A couple weeks after Gen got his piercing, he finally felt it was safe enough to go down on Mika again, and when he did, Mika came so hard and so violently, Gen nearly choked as Mika held his head down, his body convulsing as though he were having a seizure. When Mika’s arm dropped from Gen’s head, Gen had to remind Mika to breathe before he passed out.

“Shit, if it’s going to be that intense, maybe I should take it out,” Gen said.

Mika glared at him. “Do it and you’re a dead man.” The barbell stayed.

Mika and Kana sometimes went shopping together, often when Gen was at work so Mika could see him. On one shopping venture, Mika spotted Gen on his knees in front of the freezer case, stocking some TV dinners. Unable to control himself, he walked up behind him, and, sliding his hands down his chest, he whispered, “I love it when you get down on your knees in front of me.”

Gen shivered but before he could say anything, Mika walked away, the tip of his tongue on his crooked tooth. 

Kana walked up to Gen as he stood, the frustration evident on his face as he watched his boyfriend tease him down the aisle.

“What’s all that about?” she asked.

“I think I accidentally turned my boyfriend into a nympho.”

Kana gagged and walked over to the pizza section as Gen ran after Mika, catching him at the end of the aisle and turning him around in his arms, both of them laughing.

Another time they were shopping, Mika almost got thrown out of the store after punching some guy in the face, to everyone’s shock. 

Gen and Mika were standing in the aisle talking with Andrew, Gen standing behind Mika with his arms around him, when a couple of teenagers walked past them. One of them made a slur that made Gen tense up. He was about to turn and confront them, when a small blur with black hair dashed in the direction of the teens.

“Excuse me,” he said. The kids turned around and Mika smiled sweetly at them. “Hi, how’s it going?” In the next second, he made a clean right hook into the face of the teenager with a bad haircut, nearly knocking him to the floor. “Watch your fucking mouth.” He strode back to Gen and Andrew who had nearly choked on his soda. Gen’s jaw was on the floor, his eyes wide.

Mika grinned up at him. “See, I told you I can take care of myself.”

Gen whispered in his ear what he was going to do to Mika when he got home after work and Mika blushed, making him promise that he would do as he said. Gen kept his word in spades.

At the beginning of July, Jolene called Mika out of the blue. No one had heard from her up to that point. She told Mika she wanted him home, that she was sorry she had overreacted and that she would never insult his father’s memory again. Of course, no one believed her and there was no trust in her word that she would do better by him when he came home.

Gen did not want Mika to return to his mother’s house. “I don’t feel right about it, Mika,” he said. “Why did she wait so long in the first place?”

“I don’t want to either, but I don’t have a choice,” Mika said sadly. “I’m not eighteen yet, remember?”

Gen remembered his grandad mentioning that when Jolene had first thrown Mika out. It was the first time Mika’s age had even been brought up but Gen didn’t question it further.

“We could get you emancipated,” Gen suggested.

“That process takes forever, believe me, I already looked into it years ago.” 

The day Gen dropped Mika off was incredibly hard. It didn’t matter they would still be spending time together, the fact was Mika wasn’t where he would be completely safe and they all knew it. They were reminded of when their relationship had first begun and Gen had to take him home after Thomas had strangled him. He had a bad feeling back then, as well.

Gen took a few minutes to see the kids, who had missed him terribly, especially Anabelle, who wouldn’t let him go. She was happy he still wore the bracelet she had made for him before he left on the family trip. He told her it was his favorite and would never take it off.

Before he left, he took Jo aside. “I’m going to make this as clear as I possibly can,” he said. “If anything, and I do mean anything happens to Mika, I’m holding you responsible.”

“I promise, I’m going to take care of him, okay?” Jo said, understanding completely where Gen was coming from. She hadn’t been a great mother and she knew it. “I’m trying to do better, Genya, I swear.”

“You don’t get to call me that,” Gen said, his eyes shooting daggers at her. “Only Mika and the kids can. You lost that privilege the day you threw Mika out for wanting to know more about his own father.” He turned away, leaving her speechless. She knew right then she had lost his trust and his respect, and she knew she deserved it.

He gave Mika a big hug and kiss at the door, promising they would hang out the next day when he got out of class. “You call me if anything happens.”

Mika nodded. “I promise, Genya. I love you…” There was no hiding his anxiety.

“I love you, Mika Torino.” He kissed him again then left, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The weeks that followed were good ones, all things considered. Things at home were going better, Mika said, but he still didn’t trust anything Jo said. Once she had admitted to lying to him, everything that came out of her mouth was automatically suspect. She had told him the day he came home that she would prove to him that he could trust her again, that she wouldn’t lie to him anymore.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Mika had said, then locked himself in his room.

Kana was thrilled to be able to spend time with Ana and Ben again, and so were they. If Gen and Mika didn’t take them out somewhere, Kana would. Jo even allowed them to spend the night a couple of times, to everyone’s sheer delight. Don was dragged into their play and he didn’t mind it at all. They watched anime, ate homemade pizza and snacks in the den, played in the backyard, and when they finally crashed, Mika and Gen carried the children to the spare guest room where they put the kids to bed, each dropping kisses on their heads.

Gen lingered a bit over Ana, brushing a few strands of her baby fine blonde hair from her forehead, a small smile on his lips as he watched her and her brother sleep. It reminded him of when he was little and Kana would take naps with him, especially after their mother had been especially mean to him. Kana also had soft blonde hair that Gen used to love playing with.

Gen adored these children, worried for their safety as much as he did Mika’s, and feared the day he might never see them again. That pit in his stomach just never seemed to go away.

Mika took his hand and they went outside with Don and Kana to enjoy a quiet moment of peace.

“I need to ask you something, Mika,” Don asked. “About your mother.”

Mika glanced at him but said nothing. Don took that as the go-ahead.

“Has she ever had to leave with the kids? And if she has, where does she go?”

Mika shook his head. “There have been several times where she should have. Thomas would get so violent that it would scare Ana and Ben, threaten her, and break things, but she never left the house even after he did. No matter what he did to me or how badly he scared everyone else, she always stuck around. Honestly, I don’t think she’d ever take the kids anywhere if he did something truly horrific. She’d just stay, maybe hope that it would never happen again. But then again, things have changed, so who can really say what she would do.”

“Does she have somewhere to go?”

He shook his head. “Her family cut her off a long time ago and she doesn’t have many friends.” He looked up at Gen. “She doesn’t know me and Kelly know we’re cousins.”

“What about her mom, does she know?” Gen asked.

“I’m not sure but I doubt it. Kelly would tell me if she did. Given how strict my aunt can be, my bet would be that as soon as she found out, she’d cut off contact between us, even if Kelly no longer lives with her.”

Kana glanced at Gen. “How did you even figure out they were related? Mika said Kelly had blurted it out that day at Seth’s and you didn’t even seem surprised.”

Gen shrugged. “I paid attention, that’s all. I notice more than a lot of people realize.”

Mika recalled him saying that once before last semester. His finger twitched but he said nothing.

“They have the same eyes and nose, and a lot of the same mannerisms. Since they’re not brother and sister, I just figured they were cousins. I came to that conclusion way back at the beginning of the semester when I noticed them together in class.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to work for the police force?” Don asked, half-joking.

Gen laughed. “Sorry, Dad. I’m set on civil engineering for now.”

“Ah, see! For now! That means it can change!” Don said with a giant grin on his face and they all laughed.

During this time, Marcus returned from Boston and resumed hanging out with the other four. Trying to work on his codependency issues, Gen made it a point to hang out with Riley and Marcus separately from the other two, which Mika fully supported. He even spent time with some of his classmates, but more often than not, he spent his spare time with Kelly.

“I just feel weird with everyone else,” he told her once. “Maybe it’s because I’m not used to having to pretend anymore and having to with those guys is hard.”

“What are you even needing to pretend?” Kelly asked. “You are genuinely happy now and things are good at home.”

Mika frowned and looked away. “Yeah, mostly. I mean, I’m happy being with Gen and you guys are my best friends. But things at home are still weird. Mom is still dodgy about stuff, and she still gets standoffish with me sometimes. When she looks at me, it’s like she doesn’t like what she sees sometimes. I don’t know,” he shook his head. “She just seems so cold to me these days.”

“Have you told Gen all this?”

Mika nodded. “Of course I have. He has his own reservations about her and trusts her far less than I do. He thinks she’s hiding something and I can’t say he’s wrong.” He sighed. “Just wish I could leave that place for good. Even if things were like they were before she told me the truth, there’s still evil lingering in that house and it makes me sick. I’m only ever comfortable and relaxed when I’m not there, even more so when I’m with Gen and his family.”

“Their dynamic is definitely different from your own, that’s for sure. Far more stable.”

Mika nodded and chuckled. “They have their own sad past, but they have never once let it tear them apart. If anything, it brought them together, made them stronger. That’s something I want…”

Kelly put her arms around him. “Dummy, it’s something you already have. So long as you have Gen, you have them. They’re your family, just as much as I am.”

“Then I guess I have them forever,” Mika smiled broadly.

Things had finally stabilized for all of them. Kelly and Riley were excited for their new baby, Kana’s clientele was continuing to grow, Don managed to close a few more cases, and also gain a few more tips on Thomas Calhoun’s cold case. He also did his best to keep track of his whereabouts, just in case he came too close to the family and he would be able to intervene before anything happened. Gen and Mika continued to grow closer, their relationship ever stronger as time passed. Gen even brought up something Mika had said over the phone with Gen’s grandad.

“Were you serious about getting a place together?” he asked Mika one night. They were sitting in bed, Mika’s psych homework on his lap, their stereo playing tracks from various anime. Gen had been reading a manhwa when that thought randomly popped in his mind.

“Don’t you want to?” Mika asked. “We’d have a lot more privacy and freedom and I’d never have to worry about Thomas or my mom ever again. Plus, we can have our friends over more, and if we had a big enough place, the kids could stay with us sometimes.”

“So the loft isn’t good enough for you, is that it?” Gen said, folding his arms across his chest, grinning. “I mean, we have free room and board with a live-in chef. Can’t get much sweeter than that.”

Mika rolled his eyes. “We can’t live with your dad forever, Genya. Besides, Kana was talking about getting her own place soon, anyway. Our home cooked meals are about to change dramatically.”

Gen growled softly. “Traitor,” he said, referring to Kana. His smile faded. “I’m serious though, do you want to get a place together at some point? I might not be able to afford something too nice, but at least you’ll be safe and we’d be together all the time. We don’t even necessarily have to still live in this city. We can go wherever you want, as far away as the moon if that’s what will make you happy.”

Mika put his book down and straddled Gen’s lap, his hands on his chest. “You’d do that for me?”

“I’d do anything for you, Mika,” Gen said, his hands on Mika’s thighs. “I just want you to be happy and feel safe, with no more fear or anxiety. If that means getting you away from this city, then that’s what I’ll do. Give me a place where you want to go and I’ll make it happen.”

Mika smiled softly and leaned forward so their foreheads were touching. “As long as I’m with you,” he said, “I’ll go anywhere.”

Life was indeed going well for everyone. Until the day Mika Torino, the boy with the perfect attendance record since sixth grade, missed his classes.

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