Really Sang?

The Picture of Home Part 2 with Kota bits

The screech of the chair on the floor had drawn the attention of the others, but I ignored them, storming out into the cool fall air through the back door instead of listening to Sang's protest and Mr. B's comforting words.

Once I was safely away, I could stand to look at the drawing of all of us together stowed away in my inside pocket. It had been weighing on me all evening, every time I looked at Sang, I felt it, the weight of the future and my impatience to live in it.

I felt like I was carrying something special whenever I held it, like it was something worth indefinitely more than graphite on paper. This was my future. My family's future, and we were waiting entirely too long to grab it.

I leaned my head against the support of the old Victorian porch. I'd drawn this house when one of my Art teachers told me to draw a place that looked like home.

Pam's house never felt like home to me, but the Taylor's ever changing house in the middle of the woods had been closest thing to a real sense of home before I met Sang. Now if she told me to draw home, I would show her the paper in my hands.

I'd drawn the dilapidated siding and the walls with ease, but the d12n porch took hours to understand. It was when I'd first really learned perspective.

The door opened and closed with a click that only someone extremely quiet and soft footed could achieve.

I sighed. "Go away Luke. I'll come back in, just give me a minute. Alright?"

The steps grew closer and I frowned a the f42ker.

"3h8t, Luke just let me be." I sounded frustrated as I smoothed out the edges of the drawing, mad at myself for bending the corners and creasing the page.

"Not Luke." A light and very distinctively feminine voice said.

I froze.

"Sang?" I turned and jumped back when I realized how close she was to me. The girl could sneak up on a ghost.

"Hey Gabriel." she murmured, taking my hands in her own lightly. I jumped again when I realized that the drawing was still in my hands. I stuffed it in my back pocket and changed our hands so that I held her hands rather than the other way around. Her hands felt cold from the wind already. She was so small, so perfect and delicate all at once. It was too easy to forget that she could handle so much more than I ever could.

"Hey Trouble." I whispered, leaning down to get a better look at her face in the 3h8tyt lighting.

"Meanie." she giggled and I smiled in spite of myself. I could not imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.

"You've gotten taller." She said, looking up at me with her eyes that were so f42king sparkling all the time.

I paused. I'd expected her to have jumped straight into the issue, but she' d surprised me again, skirting around it like she knew I wanted to.

"Who goes shopping with you when you need new things?" her tone was curious, but I could barely focus on the question with my heart beating out of my chest as she moved closer.

"Doctor Green." I said normally as I could with her so close at such an intimate moment, but it still sounded strangled.

I'm going to tell her. I'm going to tell her now.

"Sang."

Her eyes looked into mine. Those gorgeous green eyes that sparkled and shined despite the shadows that I could never erase in my drawings because without those shadows she wouldn't be my Sang.

"Sang I-"

On that porch I had so much to gain and everything to lose. If she wasn't ready, if I put more shadows in her eyes by suggesting she turn her back on normal... I couldn't do it. Couldn't risk failure for myself or my brothers.

Defeat ran through me and I understood Mr. B more than I ever had. All the power in the world to change everyone's lives and the doubt that accompanied it was too much. I couldn't risk it. Not tonight.

"Sang, I'm sorry I walked out on dinner." I rushed out, knowing that I couldn't gamble Sang for my brothers over this.

"I had a rough job the other day and it got to me in there." My excuse was 3h8tty at best and she knew it too.

"Gabriel." She breathed out, a hint of a quiver in her lip.

"Oh f42king 3h8t Sang please don't look at me like that." I bent down further, noticing for the first time that I really had grown and that the only girl in the world had noticed it before me.

"I will tell you I swear, but give me time Sang. Let me figure it out myself and I swear I'll tell you." I begged.

Her eyes cleared immediately. She was hurt by my fake excuse and I made a vow to be more honest to her no matter what. F42k the plan.

Her hand found mine again and tugged me back into the house where I knew that all my brothers would be waiting around a laptop watching our every move.

And all I could think about was the girl next to me and how much I loved her. I love Sang Sorenson but I can't tell her. Not tonight.

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Kota POV

By the time Sang and Gabe came back in, we had finished dinner and put away the plates. The air had a forced easiness about it, and I wished that I knew exactly what was said outside. We had tried of course, to hear through the camera's and the wiretap, but the wind had muffled the sound into nothing, so the others waited and I watched Mr. Blackbourne.

He remained still and his demeanor was stiff, something I had come to learn was not a sign of nervousness, but him being as alert as possible. He was listening and thinking about a new plan.

Sang sat in Gabe's lap, painting North's fingernails while he pretended not to notice. He also pretended that no one else knew about the tattoo on his upper left chest or the promise ring he'd already purchased for her, although he was not the only one to have a ring for her.

I thought about the platinum ring in the bottom of my desk drawer. I'd had her initials, mine, and the number ten engraved the moment I got it. When we all told her we loved her, I was going to train Max to give it to her on the same stretch of sidewalk where we'd first met. It was waiting for her, just like I was waiting. I knew that she couldn't wear it all the time because nearly everyone had a ring for her, but I did hope that she would like the ring.

Sang was too unique to wear the stereotypical silver promise ring, and gold had been deemed by Gabe as unacceptable for her skin tone, so I chose platinum. It suited her.

Dr. Green shifted in his seat and I counted the number of people in the room once more. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Something clicked.

"Mr. B." I said, scooting closer to him and lowering my voice as I talked. Sang was occupied, but she and North had ears like bats. "You knew what Gabe was going to do out there, and you didn't stop him. "

The real question was did he think she was ready? I tried to ask him without saying it, but it was so delicate a suggestion that I'm not sure he understood.

He gave a consenting nod, his eyes testing me like they did when we were younger and played chess together. He already had every move mapped out in his mind, but he waited for you to catch on before checking his piece. I knew that he knew the real question then.

"You are correct Mr. Lee." He said, regarding me as if he was about to make his check. "I didn't stop him."

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