What do you think you're doing?

The entire conversation, heart-rending though brief, was permanently burned into Lev's memory, and had been for the past two months.

It happened a couple of hours after the match between Ziro Acera and Nickolas Pierce had taken place at Riviam's lookout point, or as many at Somber Ridge high school had dubbed the fight, 'Presidential Brawl'.

Ziro and Nickolas (or Nick, as many at Somber Ridge knew him by) were longtime bitter enemies, and short-time sole competitors for the position of their senior class president, the latter made so because of a deal proposed by Nick and ultimately accepted by Ziro: a hand-to-hand combat match with a few karate/taekwondo point scoring rules. The loser, would drop out of the election.

The brawl, though a paltry bloodbath, had left bruises that lasted for weeks on both competitors. Nearly every student from Somber Ridge had been in attendance, cheering on the fight in a tumultuous ring surrounding the two. The victor — to everyone's shock — was Nick, who had somehow bested Somber Ridge's best despite his seemingly non-existent know-how of any fighting styles. Despite the baffling win, it was a still a win that Ziro would have been able to accept, if afterwards he hadn't caught sight of Lev strutting up to Nick with opened arms and words of praise. What was just as bewildering was the gush of gratitude coming from Nick in response.

What had made Ziro absolutely sick to his stomach and blind with outrage, were Nick's following exact words: "Five months of training with you gave me the keys to victory! You, Lev Novas, are the best teacher I've ever had."

Five months. Nick had first challenged Ziro the second week into January, and the match had been scheduled for the last week of May, two-weeks before the day came for Somber Ridge's future senior class to vote on their class president.

It was bait, Ziro had realized then, as Nick had obviously made sure that his gratitude towards Lev had been acknowledged loud enough. But, it was also ammunition to wound Ziro, kick him while he was already down — because what had utterly destroyed Ziro, was the fact that it was true.

Lev hadn't denied it. For five months, he had met with Nick in secret, training him to fight and win against his best friend — his brother. For two months, Ziro had never known why. Lev had never wanted any of it to be a secret, but even then as Nick blatantly revealed the truth and Ziro irately confronted him, he still couldn't bring himself to explain. And after what had happened between him and Nick afterwards, part of him was glad that he never did reveal the reason...

*********************************************************

"What do you think you're doing?" Nick had questioned, eyebrows creased in confusion, and arm held out to guard his personal space.

A victory party had been raging on downstairs; students of Somber Ridge who had witnessed the Presidential Brawl had attended Nick's celebratory event held at the Pierce Mansion in the city, that had taken place later that evening.

Upstairs in Nick's bedroom, Lev had stood stunned on one side of the wall where he'd been shoved to by Nick, who was right across from him.

"I...I thought...You said we made a good team," Lev had sputtered.

"Yeah, made, as in past tense. And anyway, did you seriously think that was an invitation to try and kiss me?" Nick's laugh had been scornful, his eyebrows crinkled with derision.

"...but...before you-you kissed me..."

Nick had shrugged, an exaggerated lift of his shoulders. "A lot was on the line then, and you were about to screw things up by telling Ziro about what we were doing. Desperate times and all that, you know?"

Lev's stomach had churned, bile stirred in the pit of his gut. "But everything you said to me; when you came to me for help, while we were training-"

"Look, Lev." Nick had stepped closer, his intonation aloof. "I needed the keys to class presidency, and you helped me get them. Now that it's all said and done, I don't need your help anymore. And I really don't play for your team. Not like I actually ever said I did anyway."

Lev had had both hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, his eyelids grown damp. "...so you just lied about everything? You used me?" He had moved a baleful step forward, at the same time Nick had retreated a step back.

"Hey-ey." He had sounded entertained, but his smile was wicked. "It's not like I'm gonna go around telling people about how you took a few compliments the wrong way."

Lev had froze; his hands had slowly unclenched. "W-what?"

Nick had continued. "I won't expose the fact that you basically offered to spar with me to prep for my match with your so-called best friend." Nick had stepped close again, leaned in towards Lev where he whispered, "I won't tell anyone that you kissed me, and then tried to again right in my own bedroom."

Lev's voice had caught in his throat; nausea swayed this way and that in his gut. "...what? But...that's not what-"

"That is," Nick had cut in, "if you back away now and leave, I won't tell anyone. It's simple, Lev. Just keep your distance from now on, and you get to keep your dignity. Sound good with you?"

***************************************************

"I never spoke to Nick after that," Lev said to Ziro. Bodies passed the two in all directions as they had drifted to the center of the hospital lobby. "Stayed away from him completely. Not that I had much of a choice."

"You did it-you did all that...because you liked Nick," Ziro said, not at all a question, but as a fact.

Lev had lost the nerve to look him in the eye ages ago while he'd been telling his story, so he answered Ziro along with a feeble head nod. "I guess back then I'd rather you hated me for helping him and never know why, then you knowing that I had feelings...for a guy."

"You had a point there," Ziro retorted, the look on his face wholly obscure, but despite that the words alone were enough to rattle Lev, shame swelling in his chest. "Yet at the same time, you didn't," Ziro continued.

Confused, Lev finally met eyes his again. "W-what? What do you mean?"

"이 멍청아 (ee mong-chong-a) you idiot. I'm only pissed that it was Nick, not that you like guys in general. You can like whoever you want," Ziro's hand latched onto one of Lev's shoulder's, giving it an anchoring squeeze, "just not him."

The swelling in Lev's heart had faded, emptied out of all the fear, regret and shame, and left with just yearning; an ache for his long missed companionship and brotherhood. A smile broke across his lips, worn out but contented. "I am an idiot though, for being into that douche. Believing all those crappy compliments, falling for his nice-guy act."

Another squeeze on the shoulder from Ziro, as if to say, it's not your fault. There was something else left unspoken in Ziro's eyes, more to a story that even Lev didn't know about. But he wasn't going to risk their reconciliation by asking about it now.

"걱정 마 (gok-jjong ma) don't worry," Ziro told him. "I'll make it a slow death the next time I see him."

Lev's worn smile turned into an enervated chuckle. "Could you actually not mess Nick up? He didn't say anything about you keeping your distance from him, but I don't want to give him any reason to blab all that stuff about me. I know it's not true-" he squirmed at the memory of almost kissing Nick in his bedroom, "well most of it anyway. But who'd believe me over the senior class president?"

"I believe you," Ziro said along with a third shoulder squeeze. "We'd all believe you."

Lev didn't need to ask to know that Ziro had meant Carsyn and Evan. Lev missed them too, he realized, as much as he had missed Ziro. Of course they'd all believe him. They were his friends. They were his family.

"Sorry..." Lev blurted. The word had been on the tip of his tongue for a while now, but he hadn't been sure of the best moment to say it.

Ziro withdrew his hand from Lev's shoulder at last, one corner of his lips curving into a half smile. "You don't owe me an apology, Novas. The air's all clear now."

"Yeah, but, you had to pull out of your president campaign thing then. And you could've won too — I remember overhearing a lot of people talking about voting for you over Nick. You had a lot of cool ideas, you know."

Ziro shrugged. "Not that big a deal. I only ran because mom suggested it. She thought it'd look good on uni apps. I didn't really care if I got the position or not."

"Sooo, I didn't screw up your path to running for future prez of the U.S.?"

A smirk twitched across Ziro's lips before a low chuckle got away from him. "Jeez, no. Never."

And then they were both lost in laughter, their bout low in volume but resounding enough that if the hospital wasn't so occupied of other people, the floors beneath them might've been heard rumbling at the sound.

"Lev!"

"Ziro!"

Voices of urgency travelled through into the lobby, and Ziro and Lev twisted their heads to see Ridley and Kaia jogging as fast as their heeled sandals could let them. A third person was moving along with them, in front of them. Lev and Ziro knew his face well, and Lev's chest prickled with hope that the man would undoubtedly be able to get the info they needed on Alex's whereabouts, if he didn't have it already.

"Mr. Delgado," Lev said.

"Leven. Ziro." The man greeted the boys with his baritone voice, along with a brief, acknowledging head nod.

Doctor Delgado — as the everyone who worked at or regularly visited the hospital knew him as, or Jamie Delgado, as majority of everyone who lived in Riviam Point knew him as — was in essence, a tan werewolf with ash brown fur clothed in a white lab coat, who was one of the few doctors in the large-scale hospital that was an obstetrician. He was also the same faithful doctor that had guided both Ridley and Kaia through their pregnancies, and had delivered both Ziro and Lev seventeen years ago.

"You're mother's have filled me in," Mr. Delgado went on, looking stern as he usually did, despite his actual good-natured disposition. "That boy you're looking for — Alex Prior. He hasn't gone into surgery, and didn't need it for his condition. A few bruised ribs, some patched-up scrapes, and some stitches to the back of his head. He's going to be fine. He's up on the third floor, room three-oh-five-"

Neither Lev nor Ziro wasted a second longer — they were off, sprinting for a corridor that was just across from the front counter, a hall they were both certain would lead to an elevator. They ignored the shouts from their mothers, calling for them to 'wait' and 'slow down'.

Lev headed the sprint, determined to not stop until he saw Alex with own eyes. With Ziro by his side once again, and knowledge of where Alex was, Lev wasn't planning on 'waiting' or 'slowing down' anymore.