Chapter 4

Twang. Wince. Twang. Wince. Twang. Wince. Twang. Wince.
Tala was beginning to regret giving Kai the elastic band, as he had done nothing all morning but twang it, causing Tala and Elena to wince, every time it made contact again with Kai’s wrist.
Seemingly to have had enough, Elena bid the boys goodbye, and went to work once again. Tala carried on wincing as Kai carried on twanging. Feeling a bit stressed, Tala lit up a cigarette, but carried on watching Kai.
“Want to do something today?” Tala asked conversationally.
“Not really.”
“Well, I need to launch part two of ‘Tala’s Super Duper Make Kai Better’ plan.”
Kai raised his eyebrow.
“Oh yeah? And what’s part two?”
“I have no idea. Want to go out somewhere?”
“Like where?”
“The park. The café. Wherever you want to go,” Tala shrugged.
“Sounds nice. Is it like a date?”
Tala stared, and Kai immediately regretted asking such a question.
“If you want it to be,” Tala shrugged again.
Kai looked down at the table, and began twanging his elastic band again nervously. A date? A real date? What the Hell was he thinking?! Apparently, he wasn’t thinking very much, because before he knew it, Tala was pulling on his arm, putting his coat on, and dragging him out of the house.
As they walked through the park, Tala skipped along, and even chased the squirrels. Kai knew it was all to make him laugh, and so laugh he did, because at that very moment, there was nothing funnier than watching Tala ‘Yuriy’ Valkov chase squirrels up their trees.
When Tala rejoined Kai on the path, they received some very odd looks from old women passing-by. Tala suggested through his panting that they go to the café, and get a warm drink and something to eat. Kai wanted to protest and tell Tala that he wanted to watch him chase squirrels again, but thought that that sounded too weird, and so nodded to Tala’s suggestion of going to the café.
Once in the café, Kai bagsied a table, and Tala went to order two cups of tea, and two toasted teacakes. It was a very English café, Kai had concluded. As their cups of tea and toasted teacakes were served, Tala eyed up Kai. Kai stared back nervously.
“What?” he asked.
“You’d better eat and drink this lot, this time. You didn’t the last time we came here,” Tala replied, taking a big bite out of his teacake.
“Sorry… I guess I wasn’t hungry,” Kai apologised, pouring just one sugar into his tea, and taking a sip.
The two of them ate and drank in silence, not really having anything to say to each other. Their was an air of awkwardness between them that was so strong, that the girl at the till considered throwing them out. But throw them out she didn’t, and Tala and Kai soon finished their food and drink, and left of their own accord. Kai shivered when they stepped back out into the cold street.
“Anywhere you particularly want to go?” Tala asked, tilting his head.
“Your house. Where it’s warm,” Kai replied, retracting his head further into his coat.
Tala smiled, and lit up another cigarette. He kept glancing at Kai as they walked down the street, and he noticed that Kai hadn’t twanged his elastic band since they first left the house. Tala threw his cigarette butt on the ground, earning a reproachful look from another old lady they passed.
Once back in the warmth of the house, Tala winced again as he heard Kai’s elastic band go twang. They hung up their coats and went into the lounge, both of them flopping onto the couch. Tala pressed a button on the TV remote, and the TV came on. It was on some stupid news programme that Tala wasn’t really paying attention to. He could only hear the twanging of Kai’s elastic band.
“So… Why did we go out… You know… On a kind of…” Kai garbled, trying to break the silence.
“On a date?” Tala put in helpfully. “I don’t know. I thought it might cheer you up. And make you, you know, feel loved.”
Kai didn’t say anything in reply, but rested his head on Tala’s shoulder, hoping that Tala was being sincere, and wouldn’t remove his head from the shoulder that was really quite comfy. Tala didn’t.
“Did you feel loved?”
“… Yeah.”
“Good. Do you want to feel even more loved?”
Kai looked up at Tala, who was smiling the happiest smile Kai had ever seen plastered on his face. Kai nodded, and Tala pulled Kai close to him, giving the younger boy a much-needed hug.
When Elena returned a little later on, she had been a little startled to see both boys curled up close together on the sofa, fast asleep. She smiled, knowing that now that they had each other, everything would be OK.

~*~

“Yuriy!”
“Stop calling me Yuriy!”
“But it’s your name! Yuriy, come here, and-”
“I won’t go anywhere near you unless you stop calling me Yuriy!”
Kai sighed, and extended his hand to his sulking boyfriend.
“I’m sorry. Tala, then. Come and give me a hug. I need one.”
Tala pouted, but went to give Kai a hug, anyway. Tala had been out for the day, planning things Kai wasn’t allowed to know about just yet, and Kai had felt a bit neglected, and was in serious need of a hug. Just as they wrapped their arms around each other, Elena walked through the door.
“Oh, boys. I wish you wouldn’t get all lovey-dovey in the hall. There’s plenty of room for your hugging in the lounge, or your bedrooms or-”
“OK, Mother, we get it.”
Elena smiled as Kai led Tala by the hand up the stairs, no doubt about to try and persuade Tala to let him know what he’s planning. Elena spotted Kai’s wrist as the two boys walked up the stairs, and noticed that his cuts had eventually faded to scars, but he was still wearing an elastic band.
What was even better, was that she hadn’t smelled or seen a cigarette in the house for months.
They really had helped each other.