Kalen arrived after dinner, accompanied by the triplets. It was a little weird, hovering behind his mother in the doorway when all four of the boys on the front porch looked past her at him. "Hello boys!" she greeted, smiling warmly, "It's very nice to see you all again".

"You too, Mrs. Anders," Kalen greeted, grinning. He turned to his brother's then and put a hand on Joe's chest, pushing him backwards. "Alright guys. It was very nice of you to drive me here but you can go now-"

"We actually thought we could have a word with James before we headed out... in private, you know," Joe claimed, looking down at his little brother, and then raising his blue eyes to smile at James's mother. "Could we have a minute please?"

James's mom looked over her shoulder at him with raised eyebrows, and he shrugged in response. "Of course, boys," she responded, turning back to smile at the four Bradfords. "I'll be in the kitchen finishing the dishes".

"Thanks Mrs. Anders," Michael called after her before tilting his head down to regard his brother. "Kalen, wanna step in side for a minute? We'd like to talk to James's just the-"

"No," Kalen snapped, narrowing his eyes at his brothers. James watched the tense situation with raised eyebrows from the doorway, his eyes widening when Kalen's gaze shifted to him. "James, tell them I can stay".

"Uhh," James said, pushing himself off the doorway and shifting uncomfortably under the four gazes that were suddenly staring at him, waiting for his response. "This seems like a family matter, but if it counts for anything, I wouldn't mind Kalen staying". That seemed to satisfy Kalen, and not entirely piss of the triplets, so James took it as a success. 

"Fine," Daniel grumbled. "Kalen stays. Let's get this over with."

"Perfect," Kalen said with a girn, leaning towards James to put his bags down by the door, and then grabbing his sleeve to pull him out of the house. "What did you guys have to say?"

"Kalen, we know you're still angry at us for going behind your back to talk to James, but we just want to make sure you stay safe when we're gone. There's a lot of people who may try to take advantage of you with us not around, and James is a good guy who can take care of you-" Michael defended, only to be cut off.

"I don't need that," Kalen snapped before taking a deep breath and shooting James a look from the corner of his eye. "You should have talked to me first".

"Well we know you like James so we figured you'd be fine with the whole thing," Joe claimed, seeming less than pleased with his stubborn brother. James felt as if he was intruding on a family moment, but he also felt slightly giddy at the words, you like James.

Because he clearly couldn't look at Kalen during that moment, James looked at Michael, who was, for some reason, already looking back at him, an unreadable expression on his face. At being caught, Michael's eyes widened slightly, and then he turned his face away. James frowned at the odd behavior.

"Guys, we need to get back home soon, so we'd better wrap this up," Daniel advised, raising his wrist to check his watch. "Let's just give him our phone numbers so he can reach us if he needs too".

"That's a good idea," Joe agreed with a nod of his head. He held his hand out towards James. "Give me your phone". Without question, he obeyed, making sure to unlock it first for convenience.

"We're expecting you won't need to reach us," Daniel said, eyes narrowed and voice like a threat.

"But don't hesitate if you do," Michael added, throwing a look at Dan before taking his phone from Joe.

Once all three of their numbers were in his phone, it was returned to him. "Alright then. Kalen, we'll call you, and you're expected to pick up. Have a good time. James, thanks for looking out for him. We're counting on you," Joe dismissed, forcing Kalen into a quick hug before backing down the front steps. Immediately Daniel moved after him. "We better go before Dad yells at us".

"Have a nice trip," James offered, and Michael shot him a grin  before hopping down the stairs after his brothers. James watched him go, thinking about the look he had briefly seen on his face. Kalen remained silent until all three of them were in their car.

"They really frustrate me," he admitted in an even tone, golden eyes narrowed in the direction of the retreating car. "I mean, why did they give you their phone numbers? Don't they trust me enough to call them if something's wrong?"

"Is that what this is about?" James asked. Kalen's eyes shifted to his once the car was out of sight. "Does this whole thing bother you because you want your brothers to trust you to take care of yourself?"

"Are you trying to analyze me again?" Kalen inquired, though before James could agree to this, his mother was clearing her throat behind them, and they both turned to face her in the doorway.

"I thought I heard car doors. Is everything alright?" She asked, seeming concerned.

"Everything's great mom," James assured quickly, not wanting her to worry. "They just wanted to give me their phone numbers in case we needed to reach them.''

"Ahh". She moved back in the doorway so they could slip in past her, Kalen pausing to pick up his bags again. "Well it's very sweet that they're so worried about you, Kalen, but I assure you, we'll be fine. I have both of your parents numbers, and I've been a mother for the past eighteen years. I think I can manage to keep you alive for the next four days".

With a small laugh, Kalen addressed James's mother. "Oh, I'm not worried at all, Mrs. Anders. My brothers are just a bit overprotective is all."

"Older brothers often are. I remember Ace getting suspended in third grade for hitting a first grader when he tripped James on the playground," his mother told, smiling fondly at him and leaning over enough to gently elbow his side. "We were so proud of him. You used to be so small for your age".

Embarrassed, James slid his eyes over to Kalen, who was grinning as if his mother had just revealed James's greatest secret. "Mom," James warned, leaning away from his mother, who laughed at this reaction before bringing her attention back to Kalen.

"James can show you up to your bedroom so you can get your bags put away. We were planning on watching a movie or television show at night and eating popcorn, but you don't have to join us if you don't want to. You'll be staying in James's room, if that's alright. James will be sleeping elsewhere so you won't need to worry about him" she explained, and James felt hers and Kalen's eyes move to him for half a second.

They had talked about Kalen possibly sleeping in the guest room–the room set up like Ace's old room– but something about that threw James off. He didn't want anyone sleeping in there, not even himself. It felt wrong, like he would be disturbing something that was meant to be left alone. If Ace couldn't sleep in the room with his surroundings, then no one should be able to. His mother disagreed with him on this, since it had meant Kalen would be sleeping on the couch, and that seemed ridiculous given there was a perfectly good free bed, and James had easily volunteered his bedroom to the younger boy.

"Oh," Kalen voiced, sounding surprised by this. "Yeah, that's no problem". With that, James's mother moved from the living room and went down the hall, probably to join her husband on the back screen porch as she did most nights after supper.

"I can take your bags if you want," James offered, shifting back on his heels a little bit out of discomfort. It was the first time since they're trip to the copier that he had been completely alone with Kalen, and for some reason it felt like many things had changed since then.

"I got it. Thanks," Kalen assured, golden eyes calculating. James nodded and moved around him towards the stairs, leading the way up to his bedroom. "So why exactly will I be staying in your room? Don't you guys have a guest room? I don't want to be intruding on your space".

"It's alright," James assured. "I haven't been living here very long anyways, so it hardly feels like my room yet. I don't mind you staying in here." As he spoke, they reached the top of the stairs and moved to stand in front of James's closed door, but Kalen's eyes wandered to the door a little farther down the hall.

"You have a poster for that band?" He asked, dropping his bags on the floor before moving down the hall to look at the door to Ace's, no, to the guest room. "They suck, James".

For a moment, James eyebrows drew together as he wondered how to address the situation. He could very well tell Kalen that it was his brother's, but then the boy would probably be extremely embarrassed. He could also tell Kalen that it was his, but then he would be extremely embarrassed, because Kalen was right. The band sucked.

James decided to go with the truth. "Yeah, ugh, that's actually my brothers. The guest room is set up like his room back home, and he always had that poster on his door". Golden eyes grew incredibly wide, and then Kalen was dropping his head into his hands. "You're right though, it does suck".

"Oh my god, James," Kalen groaned. "I am so sorry, I can't believe I made fun of your deceased brother's band poster". James laughed softly at that, and Kalen dropped his hands, revealing his incredibly red face. "Why are you laughing at me?"

"I'm just thinking about how much my brother would have liked you," James confessed, and Kalen's eyes widened.

"Because I made fun of his band poster?"

"Yeah". James nodded his head. "But for a lot of other reasons, too". Kalen smiled then and looked at him in a way that had James freezing, and then his own lips curving up more. He wondered how Kalen could do it, could make everything James felt for him intensify with a single look. His heart was beating so hard that he could hear it in his ears, and he had to turn away before he burst, back towards his own room. "Um, are you ready to see where you'll be sleeping?"

"Yeah," Kalen agreed happily, stepping forward a little so his fingers brushed lightly against James's wrist, teasing him. Apparently, he had recovered from his embarrassment. "Lead the way".

More than anything, James wanted to grab those fingers and kiss his knuckles, but he couldn't, or at least, really really shouldn't, so he instead worked on fighting his blush as he began down the hall. Kalen followed him the six feet until his doorway, bending down to pick up his bags. James waited until the boy was standing again and looking at him with raised eyebrows to say, "You know, I even cleaned my room for this".

Perfect lips pulled up into a smile. "I'm honored," Kalen teased, eyes following James arm to his hand, which was resting on the doorknob. Eagerly, he leaned forward.

James pushed open his door, and then stepped back, gesturing for Kalen to enter before him. "After you".

Kalen obeyed, moving past him. He went straight to the bed, setting his bags down on the floor at the end of it. Then he turned, looking around with interest in his eyes, surveying his surroundings. Nervously, James stayed in the doorway, waiting for Kalen to say something. "It's nice in here," the other boy said softly, his gaze lingering on the bookshelf. "You have a lot of books".

"Well, I have a lot of free time," James responded, finally moving further into the room and looking around. He wondered how everything looked to Kalen. "It's actually kind of plain, isn't it? At home my room was smaller so the space was filled more easily, and it was a dark blue which just kind of made everything feel smaller. The white walls here are really off putting".

"You could paint them," Kalen offered, dropping to sit on the end of the bed. He looked so small there, James thought, but not in size. Every other time James had seen Kalen, he had seemed larger than life– Kalen Bradford, youngest of the Bradford Clan– but here, in James's bedroom, looking around with curious gold eyes, he was just another high school boy. Just like him.

"It's your father's house, technically," James pointed out, and Kalen shrugged his shoulders, as if James hadn't said house, but something much cheaper and less important, like a pencil or piece of candy– as if Mr. Bradford couldn't care less what he did with it because he had many more to spare.

"What's your favorite color then?" Kalen asked, meeting his gaze head on.

"Huh?"

"What's your favorite color? Like, what color would you paint the room, if you could?"

"I don't know," James admitted honestly. "I don't really have a favorite color... Grey, maybe?" His mom always dressed him in grey as a child because it made his eyes seem incredibly blue.

"That's your favorite color?" Kalen inquired, and James shrugged.

"I don't know. What's yours then?"

"I like turquoise," Kalen said immediately, tipping his head back to look at the blank ceiling. "So, if I'm sleeping in here, where are you sleeping? The room next door? With your brother's stuff?"

"No," James replied, turning his face away so he didn't need to meet those gold eyes when they looked at him. "I don't think I can stay in there. I'll be sleeping on the couch".

"What? No, you're not. That's stupid. I'll sleep on the couch," Kalen offered, his voice challenging James to refuse. With a determined look on his face, Kalen rose from the bed and picked up his bags. "I'm not taking your bedroom and making you sleep on the couch".

"Yes you are," James declared calmly. "I really don't mind, and my mother would kill me if you slept on the couch. You're the guest, so you get the bed".

"James," Kalen began, and James held up his hand.

"I understand that you're like, stubborn and stuff, but so am I— I'm the youngest sibling too, you know. I'm not going to budge on this, so we might as well just not have this conversation," James advised, and Kalen's mouth dropped.

"But-"

"No".

With a huff, Kalen turned his face away and dropped his bags messily on the ground. "But I'm just trying to be less of an inconvenience to you".

"Kalen," James cut off with a sigh, just looking at the other boy as he tried to think of what to say. "I don't mind that you're staying here, or that you're sleeping in my bed, or even that your brother's asked me to spend more time with you. Actually, those things make me feel the opposite of unhappy, so just don't even worry about it, alright?"

Gold eyes just blinked at him for a moment, and then Kalen was smiling and asking, "what does that mean?"

James sighed and shook his head, wondering how he could explain to Kalen that he was happy he was there because it meant James could see him first thing every morning for the next four mornings and last thing every night for the next four nights. How could he tell Kalen he was so thankful his brothers had come to him asking for help, because it meant it was him who had reason to be by Kalen's side, and not someone else. There was no way James could say he was happy just to be close to the other boy without pushing them both closer to something that he should have been trying to prevent.

Because he did have feelings for Kalen, strong ones. He had tried not to, but it still had happened, and he didn't want to make not acting on them even more difficult.

"It just means that we're fine. You're fine sleeping here. It's all-"

"Fine?" Kalen suggested with a little smile, and James nodded.

"Yeah". They looked at one another for a long moment, and then James turned his face away. "Are you going to come downstairs? We'll probably watch a movie, and my parents will skip over all the sex scenes because they feel uncomfortable with watching them while I'm in the room".

This made Kalen laugh. "It's sweet that you guys do things as a family. I can't even remember the last time I had dinner at home with my father there".

"Is that a yes?" James asked, and Kalen's eyes widened as he seemed to realize he had been asked a question.

"Oh. Yeah. I think I'd like that a lot."

***

There was something wrong with the couch. In some places, it was too soft, making him sink too far into it, and in others it was too firm. Within the first hour of settling down to go to sleep, he had switched the cushions around multiple times in a failed attempt to maximize comfort.

Eventually, he gave up and simply laid there, his eyelids drooping and opening over and over in his war between sleep and discomfort. He thought about Kalen in his bed upstairs and Tyler and Pierce and Pierce's eyes and the Bradford triplets waiting in an airport somewhere to get their luggage. He thought of his brother's smile and how much he missed it, and he thought about the way his father often used to laugh and how infrequent it was now. It was halfway through thinking about his mother's recent bout of happiness when sleep eventually took him, his vision going dark as his eyelids became too heavy.

He didn't dream, or at least he couldn't recall any when he woke up next, greeted by the sight of two large golden eyes staring down at him. Immediately, he jerked back, terrified in his sleep induced haze. "Holy fuck".

"Oh my god," a voice breathed, and James immediately recognized it as Kalen's. "I'm so sorry".

"What the hell are you doing?" James asked, pushing himself into a sitting position and rubbing his eyes. A glance at the clock on the DVD player told him it was just past midnight.

"I swear I wasn't watching you sleep," Kalen assured, sounding slightly panicked. "I couldn't sleep because I was worried about whether or not you could sleep so I got up to go to the bathroom but then I could hear you making noises so I thought you were awake and I came down to check on you and then it was dark so I couldn't tell if you we're-"

"Kalen," James interrupted, his voice a whisper. "It's alright. I know you weren't watching me sleep".

It was quiet for half a minute, with Kalen shifting his eyes away from him, and then he asked, "Are you comfortable down here?"

He thought about the lumpy couch. With a grumble, and a hand rubbed over the back of his neck, James admitted, "not particularly".

"Okay," Kalen whispered back before finally meeting his eyes again. "We're clearly both not going to sleep with his situation, so can we please switch spots? I'll sleep much better knowing that you're comfortable in your own bed".

"You will not," James protested with complete confidence. "This couch is a death trap".

"That's not exactly making me feel any better, you know," Kalen grumbled, laying his head down against the top of the couch. "Please let me sleep here".

"No".

"Please?"

"No".

"James, please-"

"No".

With a loud huff, Kalen dropped to the floor, and James pushed himself up to his knees quickly, the blanket falling away from his shoulders, exposing his bare torso. "Oh shit, are you alright?" James inquired, assuming the boy had fallen, though he thought differently when he looked down at the boy. Kalen's arms were folded behind his head, and there was a large smile stretching across his lips. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm gonna sleep here".

"You're— ugh— Kalen. That doesn't make any sense. We're just gonna both be uncomfortable then," James protested and Kalen scoffed. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and glared up at him, gaze piercing even in the darkness.

"You're not listening to me. We're both going to be uncomfortable even if you make me go back up to your room and sleep," he declared, and James frowned. "At least if I lay here I know I'll be able to get you to go sleep in your own bed".

"Why are you like this?" James groaned, hooking his chin over the top of the couch to continue looking down at the other boy. "Why are you so damn stubborn?" He hadn't been expecting this, not after Kalen had initially agreed to take the bed.

The smile on Kalen's face glowed. "I have six older brothers. That amount of stubbornness outweighs your I have one older brother stubbornness every time," he explained happily, and James just continued to stare down at the other boy, wondering why Kalen was staying up for the sake of him on a school night. "Your mother will kill you if she wakes up in the morning and finds me sleeping on the floor".

"My mother will also kill me if she wakes up in the morning and finds you on the couch," James argued. "This is really a lose lose situation. I mean, if you feel bad that I'm sleeping here because it's uncomfortable, then you're certainly going to feel bad when you have to listen to my mother yell at me tomorrow".

"Fine," Kalen said, finally climbing up off of the floor. Thinking he won, James breathed out a long relieved sigh, but then Kalen gestured him up with a hand. "Come on. We can both sleep in your room, I'll just take the guest futon".

It wasn't really a guest futon as it was Tyler's futon. His mother had specifically bought it so his best friend would have a place to sleep, trusting the two of them enough to let them sleep in the same room alone, while also making sure they slept in separate beds. James could already hear his friends offended voice if he let Kalen sleep on his futon.

After a long moment, James rose from the couch, trying not to grow as his back popped in multiple places. "I will come up stairs with you, but I'll be sleeping on the futon, not me," James claimed firmly, and Kalen's mouth opens to protest. James cut him off, "it's actually a really comfortable futon, so I'll sleep perfectly fine, and that's actually kind of like Tyler's bed, and he's weird about it".

"Fine," Kalen agreed with a little huff, his eyes lowering then to James's bare chest, cheeks flushing so brightly that James could see it even in the darkness of the living room. "That's... good". Kalen's eyes flicked up to James's face, eyes widening at being caught looking. Quickly, Kalen turned away from him, moving towards the staircase. With raised eyebrows, James followed.

***

A stream of moon light shining in through the window across his face was what woke James the next time. In his bed, Kalen was still fast asleep, black hair mussed in a way James hadn't seen yet. Next to him, on James's night stand, the digital clock read 4:36.

It was a good he had woken up, James thought, as he swung his legs over the side of the futon and rubbed a hand over his eyes. His mom would be waking up in just over twenty minutes, and he wouldn't be able to sneak out of his room after that. Being caught in the room with Kalen wasn't an option, since his parents would most likely be uncomfortable with him sleeping alone in a room with a boy who they didn't know very well. The last thing James wanted them to do was to suspect something was going on between the two of them and make the living situation uncomfortable– they wouldn't on purpose, of course, but it would still happen, as it often did with parents and romantic interests.

As silently as he could, James put the futon back up before carrying his pillow and solitary blanket–boy had Kalen been upset about that– over to the bed. He put his pillow gently at the top of the bed, on the opposite side Kalen was sleeping on. Then, he delicately draped his blanket over Kalen's sleeping form, smiling a sleepy smile to himself as the younger boy's fingers slide out from under the covers to grab a fist full of the new source of warmpth while also curing further in on himself.

James could just sit there and watch him forever.

But that was creepy, so instead he left his bedroom and went back down to the first floor, where, unlike the night before, he easily fell asleep.