Chapter Text
Dating Kai was really awesome.
It was like when they were friends, except they also got to make out and Damon didn’t have to keep pretending that he wasn’t insanely attracted to him.
Of course, it was also distracting. Especially when he was trying to do debate prep.
“Kai, this is serious,” Damon sighed as Kai peppered kisses on the back of his neck. “I have to be prepared.”
“You don’t like my kisses?” Kai whined, his eyes filling up with fake tears.
Sometimes, Damon remembered why they hated each other so much when they first met.
“I will kiss you as much as you want after I finish this. You know how important this is.”
Thanks to his newfound internet fame, the BBC had asked him to compete in a televised debate against some of the world’s most respected speakers. Damon knew that this was a huge opportunity to prove to the world that he deserved his talent, and that he was a force to be reckoned with.
He couldn’t afford to take it less than 100% seriously. Even if that meant missing out on kissing his boyfriend for a few hours.
“Fine. I’ll go hang out with Diana until you’re done.”
“Have fun.”
On any other night, Damon would’ve given Kai exactly what he wanted. It sucked to have to be responsible, and it sucked even more to have to say no to Kai.
Saying no to him wasn’t something Damon did very often, at least not after they’d officially got together. No one in their class knew they were dating yet (since they wanted to keep their romantic lives private) but they had picked up on Damon’s ‘simp’ behaviour.
It was impossible to win; when he was ignoring Kai’s wishes he was deemed an asshole, and when he was following them he was somehow whipped.
After a couple more hours of research, he decided that he’d worked hard enough. It had nothing to do with the fact that Kai had just returned.
“Did you miss me?” Kai asked the same stupid question he did every time he returned back to the dorm.
“Of course.”
Really, the best part of their secret relationship was that Damon didn’t have to feel any embarrassment for being cheesy. He’d never say something like that in front of literally anyone else.
Kai only had to share his attention for two more days- after that it was time for the debate. Damon stayed diligent, ignoring every single whine that Kai gave him. Really, you’d think his boyfriend would be more supportive of him.
On the day of the debate, Kai waited with him backstage.
“Good luck out there.” Kai kissed him on the nose after he was given his mic.
“Thank you.”
There was more Damon wanted to say, but he was hyper aware of how many eyes could potentially be watching them. He settled for squeezing Kai’s hand, then walked out onto the stage.
It was electric up there; he hadn’t done a proper debate since high school, and even then he had never been properly challenged. He came out on top, of course, but it was exhilarating to face competition that was nearly on his level. When all was said and done, and Damon was declared the winner, he walked off the stage absolutely buzzing.
Kai practically tackled him into a hug as soon as he was out of view of the cameras. “You did so well, oh my god. You’re amazing.”
“I’ve had lots of practise, arguing with you.”
Damon felt something pressing into his back; once Kai pulled away from the hug, he presented a bouquet of (slightly squished) flowers.
“I’m glad you brought it up, because to be honest there were some moments you were really pissing me off. Not ‘cause I was disagreeing with you, you were just reminding me how annoying you are to fight with.”
Despite the insult, he took the flowers.
“And you’re any better? Seriously. You refuse to listen to any logic, even when it’s crystal clear I’m right.”
“You always think you’re right!”
“I normally am!”
It wasn’t a real fight, of course; just a bit of fun. Damon recognized that they weren’t a very conventional couple but he didn’t care very much. Neither of them were conventional people.
Bickering with Kai has felt like such a core part of their relationship that it would be stupid to give it up. Forcing the other to acknowledge that he’s right was one of his favourite past times.
When they got back to Eden’s, Damon just wanted to fall into his bed. He couldn’t, however, because the rest of his class had insisted on throwing a party in his honour. He tried to argue against it, but Diana told him that they always celebrated anyone in the class’ successes.
They could pretend it was for him all they wanted- Damon knew the truth; they just wanted an excuse to party.
Not that he wouldn’t attend- Kai would never let him skip out on something their classmates had thrown in his honour. Plus, he was making an effort to be slightly less of an asshole. Or- at least more considerate of his words.
The Dining Hall erupted into cheers as soon as he and Kai entered, and everyone started showering him with praise. So many people were talking to him that he found it overwhelming.
“Damon! That was sick!”
“You crushed them!”
“Well done, you’ve represented our Academy well.”
“We saw the whole thing on TV! That’s awesome!”
“I bet your opponents are going to cry themselves to sleep tonight!”
Unable to stop them, he allowed his classmates to get all of their excitement out. Once they stopped speaking he said a simple, “Thank you."
With that, his novelty wore off. People naturally scattered so he was able to blend into the background a little more- just how he liked. It wasn’t like he loathed attention, he just loathed having to return it.
“I’m going to go say hi to Eva,” he informed Kai. He wanted to give his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek before he left him, but with all of their classmates around he (unfortunately) had to refrain.
Eva was, predictably, sitting alone in a comfy armchair in the back corner of the room. “Hello,” she greeted him when he approached.
“Hey.”
“Congrats on your big win.”
“Thank you.”
“Was it fun to compete again?”
“Yes.” Damon smirked. “Even though I knew I’d win.”
“Interesting,” Eva hummed. “I always found competitions boring- mathlete competitions of course. I liked being right, but I thought certain victory took all the excitement out of it.”
“Maybe the problem is mathletes.”
“Maybe."
Eva looked thoughtful; Damon wanted to ask more but she spoke again before he had the chance.
“Sorry, this is your night. Let’s not talk about me.”
“No, it’s interesting.” Damon insisted, “I’m a little tired of talking about myself, anyway.”
“I’m shocked that’s even possible, honestly.”
“What the hell?”
“I mean, with your ego."
“I’m going to go find someone else to talk to.”
He didn’t, of course. Instead they had a conversation about some new science paper Eva was working on; he admired her for being so willing to explore passions outside of her talent. He couldn’t relate, though; he didn’t really have much interest in anything not related to debate. Since the subject matter was so broad, he never ran out of new things to learn.
Eventually, Kai came over with a drink. “Punch? Jett’s specialty.”
Damon took the drink from Kai and sniffed it suspiciously; he recoiled at the smell. “Jesus Christ. Is there rubbing alcohol in this?”
Frankly, it smelled almost as bad as Jett normally did.
“Maybe,” Kai giggled. “That’s why I didn’t bring you any, Eva.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Come socialize with everyone,” Kai whined. “It’s your party! You shouldn’t be hiding in the corner. No offence, Eva.”
“None taken.”
Damon sighed. “I don’t feel like socializing.”
He never did after a debate; after spending hours coming up with the perfect way to articulate his argument and manipulate the judges, he just wanted to sleep.
Still, Kai was looking at him with this sad expression and was he really going to say no to his boyfriend? No. Of course not.
“Fine,” he agreed, because he was a weak man.
“Awesome! Cassidy said she has an idea for a game.”
That wasn’t what he’d agreed to, but Kai was already pulling him toward the bigger group. He looked back at Eva helplessly, yet she didn’t move a muscle. It seemed he’d be facing the group alone.
Perhaps that was karma for keeping his relationship with Kai a secret from her- except that was ridiculous. Not only did Damon not believe in karma, but Eva had kept her relationship with Diana secret from him for weeks.
Suddenly, he came to a realization. He felt a little dumb for not having reached it sooner, but he couldn’t dwell on that. He needed answers.
“Hey, did you tell Diana we’re dating?” He asked quietly.
Kai stopped moving, and turned to look at him with a confused expression. “What made you think of that? And no, we agreed to keep it a secret.”
“Right. But when Eva and Diana started dating they agreed to keep it a secret, except Diana told you because you ‘didn’t count’.”
“I didn’t.”
“So does Diana count?”
Kai laughed, “Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”
“I feel like you just told me.”
“She listened to me complain about you for months- I felt like she deserved to know.”
Damon wanted to argue with that. He was a little annoyed that Kai had broken their promise but it didn’t seem like it was worth a fight. Plus, Diana probably hadn’t told anyone.
Unless she’d told Eva. But Eva would’ve told him, right?
He never told her.
Oh no.
“How many people do you think know?” He hissed.
“Probably just Eva and Diana,” Kai replied, not seeming very stressed.
“But what if they’ve told people?”
“They haven’t,” Kai replied confidently.
There wasn't really anything to say to that, so Damon resumed allowing Kai to drag him to the game. On the way over, he took a big swig of his punch; it burned badly enough that he had to cough.
“Oh my fucking god,” he complained.
Kai laughed at him. “Maybe you should just have one drink tonight.”
“Okay.”
Most of the class was sitting in a circle, clearly about to play a game. Cassidy’s eyes lit up when she saw they were approaching, “Okay! Perfect! Now we can start!”
“What are we playing?” Damon asked hesitantly.
He looked around the circle after he and Kai sat down and noticed that the only person missing was Eva. It didn’t seem fair that she got to skip out on whatever torture the streamer had cooked up.
“Truth or dare!” Cassidy cheered. “But remember Toshiko is here, so nothing too crazy.”
Toshiko huffed, “Hey! Stop treating me like a kid!”
“Yeah! How will we have fun without crazy dares?” Jett complained, almost certainly missing Cassidy’s innuendo.
“Why don’t we just start,?” Diana suggested. She was sitting between Eloise and Ingrid, seemingly happy to allow her girlfriend to skip out on the game. How enviable.
“As host, I’ll go first!” Cassidy decided. Then, she produced a glass bottle from behind her back and placed it in the circle.
She gave it a good spin; the group watched it go around and around until it stopped whilst pointing at Mark.
The producer looked a little put off by all the attention.
“Truth or dare.”
“I guess it would be lame to start with something other than dare,” Mark muttered.
“Woo!” Cassidy cheered. “Okay, um. I dare you to do the default dance!”
Mark blinked at her.
Thank God the bottle hadn’t landed on Damon: he had no idea what the default dance was.
“What’s the penalty for skipping a dare?” Mark asked, thankfully. Damon needed to know what his options were.
“You get declared the Ultimate Chicken, obviously.”
Ah, so his only choice was to complete any challenge thrown at him.
“Fine,” the producer sighed, then stood up and performed a ridiculous dance. Damon laughed even though he didn’t entirely get the joke.
“It’s from Fortnite,” Kai whispered to him.
Next, Mark asked Ulysses what the worst secret he has in his notebook is. He claimed it was one of Tozu’s but he was unable elaborate what it was.
Then Ulysses dared Jean to show them his search history, which was ridiculously boring. It was all just full of searches for different kinds of boats.
It continued for a couple more rounds without landing on either Kai or Damon.
“Oh, look! Truth or dare, Damon?”
Of course it was Toshiko; not only had his luck run out but he also had to deal with whatever the gremlin wanted him to do. Toshiko had gotten off easy- only having to balance on one foot for the next ten minutes.
Honestly, playing with everyone had only reinforced how ridiculously juvenile the game truly was- Damon felt silly for being scared at first. He was getting so bored, he almost wished that things were a little more juicy. At least then they’d be interesting.
Of course, they could get juicy after his turn. He’d be happy with a simple task.
“Dare,” he answered. While she was irritating, he doubted she’d be creative enough to come up with anything too terrible.
“I dare you to kiss the person you find cutest in this room.”
Fuck.
“Isn’t that going a little too far?” He looked to Cassidy for help.
“I’ll allow it.”
Faced with no other option, Damon leaned over and gave Kai a peck on the cheek. No way was he going to properly kiss him in front of these losers.
Everyone started to go crazy, which was a little annoying. It really wasn’t that big of a deal; even if they weren’t boyfriends what was a kiss on the cheek between friends?
“Geez, you’re all so dramatic. It’s not like it’s the first time.”
Kai whipped around to look at Damon after he spoke. Damon shrugged back at him; if Eva and Diana already knew then there was no point in keeping it a secret for much longer. Eventually, no matter how much they trusted their friends, the information would spread.
Plus, maybe there would be some benefits to not having to hide their relationship.
“Sorry,” Toshiko interrupted their silent conversation. “Could you specify when exactly the first time would’ve been?”
“The first time he kissed me on the cheek? Why would you care about that?” Kai questioned.
“Please say it was three weeks ago,” Jett pleaded.
This wasn’t the reaction Damon expected.
“No, it was definitely only last week,” Ingrid of all people asserted.
Suddenly, Wolfgang rose from the ground. He did so in a stupid, annoying, graceful way- not stumbling for a second. There was something infuriating about how much confidence he was able to carry.
“I believe I can shed a light on what happened,” Wolfgang explained. “The first time they kissed was Halloween night, after they both stormed out of the party. Their proper relationship started much later though, right after Toshiko matched them up for her presentation.”
Damon blinked. How did Wolfgang know all that? Slowly, he turned to face Kai.
“You told Wolfgang?”
His voice came out deathly calm, but inside a storm was brewing. It didn’t matter how much he cared for Kai- he would not be able to look past such a betrayal. To go to his biggest enemy and tell him private details of their relationship would be unforgivable.
Kai scoffed, looking genuinely offended. “Do you actually think I’d do that?”
“How does he know?”
Wolfgang interjected, “It’s quite easy, actually. Sometime in October, Kai approached me with a proposition. An opportunity to get back at Damon for being such an insufferable asshole. Of course, I agreed. Kai alleged that all we needed to do was spend the afternoon together in their dorm room, and Damon would go crazy. I hardly believed it’d work, but just as he said, Damon nearly went ballistic. I realized in that moment that Damon must be feeling jealous. Except, that would only make sense if he harboured feelings for Kai.”
“I’ve never been jealous of you,” Damon spat.
“Allow me to finish, please.” Wolfgang requested. Needing to know what came next, Damon obliged. “Now, Kai being so interested in riling Damon up could only mean there was some shared interest. I saw the chance to gift two of my classmates some happiness. So I proposed to Kai that we continue to charade at Tozu’s Halloween party, to make Damon even more upset. Unfortunately, Grace didn’t like this plan very much, but I’d say it did the job. Especially considering the drastic shift in their relationship we all witnessed the very next day. Hence, their first kiss.”
“That’s insane,” Damon couldn’t help but say. “You wanted to piss me off that badly?”
“Of course not,” Wolfgang huffed.
“How were you okay with this?” Damon turned to Grace.
“I obviously fucking wasn’t.”
Wolfgang put a hand up. “May I continue? See, this is when many of our classmates began to also notice the budding relationship between you two. Class bets started being made; I don’t think anyone else realized the depth of your relationship developments, though. I hated to see the distance between you two, truly, so I suggested young Toshiko do a presentation on partnerships she’d believe would flourish.”
“Wait.” Toshiko looked confused. “That was about these two?”
“I knew you’d include them, and it would give them the kickstart they needed.”
It was Grace who realized it first: “But that was the day you bet they’d get together. You used Toshiko to win the pool.”
“The bet was secondary to my primary motive of finding these two love.”
“You’re psychotic!” Damon accused, standing up to point at Wolfgang properly. “You fucked around with our lives like that?”
“Are you not happy in your relationship? What’s the problem?”
“It’s like, violating! So is the bet!”
At least Kai was on his side.
“It was just a little bit of fun,” Wenona sighed. “We should’ve known you’d be such babies about it.”
“We aren’t being babies!”
“We didn’t mean to make you upset,” Ingrid said earnestly.
“You’ve gotten a presumably happy relationship, and on the side we had a little fun. Is there anything wrong with that?” Wolfgang reasoned.
Cassidy chimed in, “Think of it as us being invested in your relationship!”
“Yeah! Financially!” Damon cried- Kai laughed a little at that.
He was spiralling just a little bit; how much of his relationship had happened because of fucking Wolfgang? Damon hated the guy more than literally anyone else in the world and he could not owe the best thing in his life to him. The bet he could get over- fucking Wolfgang messing with his life? He’d rather die.
“I’m sorry if we hurt your feelings.” Toshiko looked so sad that Damon felt compelled to comfort her.
“It’s fine. Whatever.”
“Yeah,” Kai agreed, then took Damon’s hand. “It all worked out in the end.”
Everyone awed at that, which caused Damon to get irritated again. None of them had the right to fawn over his relationship.
“I’m very tired so we’re going to bed now. Good night.” Damon didn’t wait for them to reply before dragging Kai out of the room.
“I can’t believe they bet on us,” he complained once they were in the hall.
Kai laughed, “Isn’t that a compliment? An invasion of privacy too, but like it just means they saw the vision.”
“The vision?”
“That we’re perfect together. Born to be together.”
“That’s so corny.”
“It’s romantic!”
Damon didn’t agree. Still, he simply held Kai’s hand and walked with him to their room. When they got there, they had a good makeout session. Just because Damon was in a bad mood and those always seemed to cheer him up.
Their class never apologized for the bet, in fact they started placing more bets on different aspects of their relationship. Would they go home for the holidays or would they stay together? Who would get the other the better Valentine’s Day gift? When would their first breakup be, and how many hours would it last?
That last one never panned out; Damon figured he and Kai could collect all the money from that at some point, since it would never happen.
His first year at Eden’s Garden’s Academy ended up being shockingly fruitful. He made big strides in his personal, romantic, and professional life. Plus, he learned the power of the internet, as well as the power of pretending to be kind to people.
Some days he hated the sap he turned into, but then Kai would smile at him and he would realize that it wasn’t so bad after all.
Not that he’d ever say that out loud; he still had an image to keep up, after all.
At the end of the year, it was time to make decisions about what would happen when they returned in the fall.
“Hey,” Eva approached him one day in the hall. “Um, this is technically against the rules but I have a lot of money riding on you and Kai moving in together on campus. Everyone thinks you’ll be off campus, but none of them know you can’t drive. So. Uh. Don’t fuck it up, please.”
She left before he could respond. How had things gotten so out of hand that even Eva was participating?
It was the second last day of classes, so when he returned to their room, Kai was packing up. The sight made him a little sad to see.
“Hi babe. How was your afternoon?”
Ugh. Babe. Damon only allowed Kai to call him that in private. Something about it felt so juvenile, though if it made Kai happy then he’d suck it up.
“It was alright. Did you know they’re betting on where we’ll live next year?”
“We should bring it to Tozu. They’re going to like, develop gambling addictions.”
“Let them.”
Damon flopped onto his bed. He hadn't started packing yet; ironically, he loathed to even think about leaving the school. Obviously he’d be back in only a couple months, but it would be a couple lonely months without Kai.
Even he knew how codependent that sounded, so he didn’t voice it to anyone. Not even Kai.
“We should probably talk about that,” Kai suggested, joining Damon on his bed. He laid his head on Damon’s shoulder, which always made it a little more difficult to think.
“Eva bet on us moving into a second year dorm together.”
“She knows us so well.”
“Is that what you’ve been thinking?” Damon asked, suddenly shy.
They haven’t spoken about it yet. Damon wasn’t sure what Kai wanted to do, and he didn’t want to presume that he’d even still want to live with him. Yes, they were dating, but maybe Kai was looking for some space.
Damon honestly didn’t care either way- whatever Kai wanted, he’d be happy with.
“I guess it makes sense. Unless you want to drive every day. Or take the bus.”
“Too many people on the bus. They give me a headache.”
“Plus on-campus housing would be free.”
“The economical option, for sure.”
There was a pause. Damon forced himself to say, “So I guess we just have to figure out if we want our own dorms or not.”
Kai sat up and looked at him quickly, an unreadable expression on his face. “Would you want that? Splitting up?”
“If you want that.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I don’t want to force you into a situation you’re unhappy with.”
Damon sighed, “As long as I’m with you and you’re happy, I’ll be happy. I don’t mind if we sleep in separate places.”
Kai furrowed his eyebrows together. It was as alarming as it was cute. “I wouldn’t be happy if we slept in separate places. I’d miss you too much. But if that’s what you want I’ll respect that.”
“Why would I want that?” Damon wondered, confused. He knew he wasn’t always the most romantic, but he hoped he wasn’t giving Kai the impression that he wanted to get rid of him.
“Because you just suggested we could live on our own?”
“Not because I want to. Just to make sure you don’t.”
“Of course I don’t. Idiot.”
“How am I the idiot?”
“You’re causing trouble for no reason!”
“I’m not causing trouble! I’m being considerate, asshole.”
“I actually hate you. So much.”
Kai said it with a stupid affectionate smile. Then, he leaned down and gave Damon a kiss that showed him just how much he meant it.
“I hate you too,” Damon mumbled against his mouth.
“Shut up.”
“Okay.”