// KAI
kai shook their head, swallowed the lump in their throat that had formed when they weren’t paying attention, shook their head again. “if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. but, i can’t – i can’t just walk away from this knowing that there’s some chance it could.” they let out a shaky breath, closing their eyes and picturing their conversation with their mother. they’d promised her they’d tell lancy everything and they had, but what if it wasn’t enough? they hadn’t accounted for that. “maybe it’ll ruin me and – and maybe you’ll break my heart into a million pieces, but – but i’m not going to live according to a maybe, lancy. and you shouldn’t either.”
this wasn’t a maybe, it was a guarantee. lancy couldn’t be someone’s girlfriend. the yawning depth of her was too much for zach, too much for carter, too much for anyone— there were countless names that she could list off backwards, all of them lost in the canyon that existed somewhere inside of her. lancy would take kai’s affection and twist it into something unrecognisable, until it was dry, but she wouldn’t tell them no. she’d warned them. it was more than the others had got. “ okay, ” she said, gently pulling her hand from their grasp, only to place it on their arm. edging closer still, lancy tilted her head up towards them, all heart-shaped lips and eyelashes that were too stubborn to flutter. “ are you going to kiss me now, kaibaby ? ”











