Study Time

Study time.

Usually that was Sirius’s least favorite time. But his new tutor, Gaius, made it actually pretty fun. Even though the fox was older than he was, they still connected well with friends. Gaius might have just been assisting at the school for the experience, to learn more about humans and how they lived their lives, and to help educate trainers on how to properly handle their Companions, but Sirius was forever grateful that he was doing it at all. The teen could not imagine what his school life would be like with Gaius and some of his new friends.

Usually they studied at the library but today Gaius had invited him over to his dads’ house. They were out when they got there. Band business. But he knew they’d be back at some point.

A little over half an hour later, he heard them return. He could also hear they were still dealing with whatever band stuff they’d been meeting about. He shouted hello to let them know where he was and went back to his books. “I hate this. I am never going to use it,” he said.

“You don’t know that for sure,” Gaius said. “Although, with you…it does seem unlikely.”

“You’re saying that because you don’t think I’m smart enough,” Sirius said, mostly jokingly. With the glasses, he looked pretty intelligent. But in a traditional sense, in a book sense, he just wasn’t. If he wasn’t interested in something, he just didn’t put the effort into it.

“That’s pretty much it,” Gaius agreed with a grin.

“Oh tch,” Sirius said, as if insulted. He wasn’t. He liked having a friend he could joke around with like that. Gaius was definitely more mature than he was but the fox had an innocence and sweetness about him that meant that Sirius could joke with him and feel safe in knowing he would never think or say anything mean and actually mean it. He just didn’t seem to have that in him. That made it real easy for the recently insecure teen to handle with him, having a friend like that. Even if he was mentoring him at the moment.

Gaius’ phone started to buzz. He glanced at the number displayed on the screen and ignored it.

“That’s like the millionth time that thing has gone off,” Sirius said, not ignoring it. He looked at the screen and he wasn’t even sorry. The numbered wasn’t labeled. He was disappointed.

“It hasn’t gone off that much,” Gaius replied.

“No, but it really has,” Sirius said. “Who’s trying to reach you so desperately? You don’t have to put off taking it for me if it’s important.”

“It’s not,” Gaius said. “You’re important. It’s fine.”

Sirius went quiet for a moment. “They seem to think it’s important,” he said before his tutor could address the current subject of study again.

Gaius sighed. “You’re not going to focus on this now, are you?”

“Nope,” Sirius replied, grinning. “You gotta either take the phone call or spill. I refuse to learn until one of those things happen.”

“I could just go home for the night…” Gaius reminded him.

“But you won’t,” Sirius said with confidence.

“You don’t think so?”

“Nope. Because you haven’t met my dads yet and it would be rude to come to their house and leave without talking to them,” Sirius said with a smug expression. “And you’re not rude.”

Gaius frowned. He took a deep breath and then seemed to struggle internally for a moment. “Fine,” he said. “Don’t look so smug. It’s just Trent.”

“Yeah, just your boyfriend,” Sirius said and rolled his eyes. “Wait…” Why wasn’t his number saved in Gaius’ phone then.

“Ex-boyfriend,” Gaius corrected him before he could accuse him of lying. “We broke up last night.”

“Oh…” Sirius felt a little bad about pressing Gaius so hard. But then he got over it. “He’s taking it pretty rough that you dumped him then, huh?” Because Trent was blowing up the guy’s phone.

“It was actually the other way around,” Gaius corrected him again.

“He dumped you?” Sirius asked with a gasp. “But…you’re you!”

Gaius laughed. “So? Don’t give me that look. It’s fine, really. I’m fine. It’s been a long time coming, I think. He’s not a very passionate person and I’m a fire fiend. I’m a bit too intense for him, I guess.”

Sirius wasn’t sure that he bought that Gaius was fine. People weren’t just fine the day after being dumped. Then again, Sirius hadn’t ever really liked Trent with his tutor. Sure, the guy was nice and good looking but he was…eh. And maybe it was different with fiends. Maybe their breakups were as dramatic as humans’. “Why is he calling you so much if he was the one to dump you? Usually it’s the other way around.”

“He was pretty drunk last night, when it happened, and I think that now that he’s sober….he’s freaking out about it or something,” Gaius said. “I don’t really care. It’s not like he can take back what he said. And I’m honestly relieved. I thought about breaking up with him a couple of months back but…I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He’s a good guy. He’s just not right for me, personally. I mean just…so much sports. I am not going to miss that.”

Sirius was quiet.

“So. Now that you’ve gotten your gossip for the day, time to get back to your studies,” Gaius said.

Sirius frowned. “You need ice cream,” he decided.

“Do I look like a female human to you? No,” Gaius said with a laugh. “I really don’t. I need you to focus.”

“No,” Sirius shook his head. “You definitely need ice cream. Dads!” he started to shout for them as he wasn’t sure if they had any or not.

“No!” Gaius said and flung himself forward at Sirius. He changed mid-fling and Sirius ended up being knocked over out of his chair and onto the floor by a very fluffy fox.

“YES!” Sirius shouted and started laughing. He ended up wrestling on the floor with the fox. “I refuse to study! You need…you need…” He couldn’t finish because he kept being tickled by six very fluffy tails. “Get your furry butt out of my face!” he gasped. And then he shrieked when Gaius stole his glasses.

“Study!” the fox insisted, although it didn’t come out sounding just like that since his voice was muffled by the glasses he was holding with his teeth.

“Ice cream!” Sirius insisted. Although he was willing to compromise on the ice cream. It just had to be something and he couldn’t exactly suggest alcohol when he couldn’t drink, even if Gaius could. Maybe. He lunged for his glasses.

Gaius was more agile than he gave him credit for. And he was fast. Like a whip. He took right off and dashed under the table and around the room. Sirius pursued him but could never get quite close enough to snatch at one of those fluffy tails. And so began the mad chase through the public areas of the house.

The twins went quiet as they heard the ruckus going on. Jiyong raised an eyebrow at Taeyang. "I hope that's only playful wrestling..." The latter replied.

"He did yell dad's, so we could totally barge on in there..." Jiyong said thoughtfully.

Taeyang wasn't for it though. So he grabbed a plate, a bunch of cookies and some other snacks alongside some milk. "Now we can." he said and Jiyong chuckled.

"Nice, I like it." He said and then headed towards where Sirius was. It didn't take long. They dramatically burst into the room, to find Sirius without his glasses and a cute adorable fluffy fox holding them in his mouth.

"We brought snacks!" Tae said as if that was a legitimate reason for not knocking.

"Is this the Gaius, that we have heard so much about?" Jiyong asked and tilted his head. He took the glasses from the fox and gave them a quick clean. Just because.

Gaius yipped in protest to having the glasses taken from him. He looked up at the two men, who looked very young to have adopted a teenager. He knew from Sirius that they were brothers, not a couple, but they didn't look much alike. One was very soft and feminine, dressed in white. The other was very masculine and dressed in black.

"Yes, that's him," Sirius answered. He took his glasses back and then picked up the fox. "You brought us cookies?" He wasn't surprised that they'd come bursting in at the sound of the commotion, cookies or otherwise.

Jiyong looked through the glasses, ignoring the yip of protest. Then he put them back on Sirius' face. "We would love to address you in our fiend form, but there isn't a lot of room in here. You understand."

"We can't all be adorable fluffy foxes!" Taeyang said. He was rather fond of the Fox type of fiends. So very cute. All the tails.

Gaius was very proud of how adorable he was. He certainly used that to his advantage. But in this case, he really couldn't communicate with them properly, especially if they weren't his kind of fiend. Which, if they were too large to be comfortable in the room, they certainly couldn't be. When he fully matured he would be much larger too but he'd still fit in the room.

"Come on, they won't bite," Sirius said, snickering. They might. But he rather doubted it. Plus he knew they'd approve of Gaius. He wasn't a trouble maker and was very helpful.

Gaius jumped out of Sirius' arms and changed mid jump. "Hello," he greeted.

"I bite. But only with consent. That's very important." Taeyang smiled all kinds of charmingly at Gaius and took his hand. "it's wonderful to finally meet you thank you for taking care of Sirius."

"Yes, thank you." Jiyong agreed with a smile.

Gaius took Taeyang's hand. "It's been my pleasure. He's a good kid." Although, he did get into all sorts of craziness and drama at school. But hey, that's what you got for being popular. And someone like Sirius always had to make a spectacle.

"Most of the time," Sirius said. "Apparently I'm not very good just wanting to give you ice cream."

"No, you just want a break from studying," Gaius disagreed. "But since your....dads? have brought you cookies and milk, I guess I can cave. This time."

"If you work him too hard, he won't absorb any of it. Breaks are a thing. At least one every hour and a half." Jiyong said, because he was protective of Sirius.

"Gaius knows what he is doing, brother. I'm sure." Taeyang said, because he was super protective too. But currently he was somewhat distracted by the cuteness. Even as a boy, Gaius was very cute.

Gaius felt a spark as he took Taeyang's hand to shake it. Now Taeyang was an electric dragon, but Gaius didn't know that. He didn't even suspect that Taeyang was electric because it wasn't that sort of spark. The spark he felt was a connection, something that resonated in two people's souls and hearts. But it was so unexpected that he let go of Tae's hand in a very flustered manner.

"Uh..I am not all work and no play," Gaius said, trying to recover. "We did take a break." He was a little surprised by how defensive the white dressed one was. But then, they had adopted the boy so they had reason to be defensive of him. He didn't know that story though. He also didn't think to ask. Though he was speaking to Jiyong, he couldn't quite look away from Taeyang.

"He's not," Sirius said. "We play a lot at school...But uh, he still really helps with my studies. I might get my first A's," he said. Which for him was a pretty big deal. He just wasn't all that interested in school unless it had to do with clothing design. And in high school, there just wasn't much of that. It took him a moment to notice that Gaius was flustered and even then, he wasn't sure what had just happened. Had one of his dad's done something? Or was he just nervous about meeting them?

Taeyang felt the spark too. Instead of being flustered, he smirked. Why? Because he enjoyed that he'd made Gaius nervous. He liked the shy.

Jiyong just looked at them both. "Hm, well getting A's will mean you deserve a proper celebration. More than the cookies and milk. But we will save it, yes? For when you bring them home for us to stick on the fridge."

"Gaius will of course be needing to be compensated for all of his hard work with you," Taeyang said, though it was subtle there was definitely some kind of flirting there.

Sirius looked at Jiyong. "You're going to put my report card on the fridge? I'm not a little kid. You don't need to do that." So embarrassing. Yeah, it was nice that they were proud of him but he really didn't know what to do with the idea of them displaying his grades as a way to shout to everyone who entered their kitchen how proud they were. He was so not used to that. "I am paying him," Sirius said then to Taeyang. "Unless you have something else in mind." He wasn't sure where Tae was going with that though he noticed a hint of....well something. Surely he wasn't flirting with his tutor.

But Gaius' tan cheeks turned a bit red, as if he'd suddenly become overheated, as happened with fire fiends with an internal flame. "Whatever you think is best," he stammered, which shocked Sirius as his tutor was anything but shy except for when he was playing up his adorable factor. In this case, Sirius didn't think he was. Gaius was being genuinely shy.

"I do and we will." Jiyong said, he was pointedly ignoring the flirt fest. "I'm sorry that your other dad is making this awkward."

"Im not sorry." Taeyang said, he put his hands in his pockets and looked massively smug. "You guys want some dinner? My treat?"

"Yes!" Sirius said enthusiastically. He had decided to ignore the awkward until he decided how he felt about his dad flirting with is tutor. "Studying is so hard. It's been an hour. I need food." He was a growing boy and he was hungry pretty much all the time.

Gaius started to answer but Sirius interrupted him in his usual enthusiastic manner. "He wants dinner too," he said. "And don't you try to be polite and say you don't want to intrude, because you intrude allll the time at school so I know how you really are."

"You're not giving me a choice are you?" Gaius asked, laughing now. "In that case, dinner would be great." His cheeks still felt a little too hot. His internal flame was definitely heating up. Taeyang seemed pretty smug about that too.

Sirius was also feeling smug that he'd gotten Gaius to say yes. But then he wondered if he was being a bit of a bully about it. "You didn't have plans, did you?" he asked, suddenly nervous he'd not been nice.

"No, my brother is working late today," Gaius assured him.

Jiyong just rolled his eyes. Taeyang was so blatant. "I'll go make us some last minute reservations, shall I?"

"Yeah." Taeyang said, but he still hadn't looked away from Gaius. "You're single right? I don't want to have to compete with some jug head."

"His boyfriend just brokenly broke up with him last night so he is very single!" Sirius burst out again before Gaius could answer. "And he needs ice cream!" he added before Gaius could cover his mouth to stop his blabbing that kind of stuff.

"I do not need ice cream," Gaius protested. He didn't like cold things but he didn't want to point that out to Sirius, who likely hadn't made the connection that fire and ice are not a great combination. "But, as he said, I am single." Ah, maybe he did need that ice cream after all to cool down. "You're not subtle at all, are you?" he asked Tae with a chuckle.

"He's really not!" Sirius said. He looked at Ji then. "Where are we going? Will there be chocolate?"

"Do I need to be? Where does subtly get you? People miss the point, or ignore it. You can't ignore being blunt." Taeyang grinned, "you can have ice cream but, if you're sad over your ex I have something better to help you."

Jiyong actually hit Taeyang then. "not in front of the boy. But yes, chocolate and ice cream and many other good things. You need a proper meal before you put that in your stomach, but I promise if you do, the place will serve us sweet treats of treasures untold."

"I-I'm good," Gaius stammered because he could very well imagine just what Tae had in mind to cheer him up. Especially after how Ji reacted by hitting him. He did not even sort of want to hint at any of that in front of the teenager, who was looking at them with a confused expression on his face.

"I don't get it..." Sirius said, looking from one father to the next. "What's better than chocolate to cheer him up?" Gaius didn't answer and it didn't look like his dads were going to do so either. "Alcohol?" Maybe because Gaius was an adult he'd like that better? He knew people drank when they were upset.

"You really don't know how fire works, do you?" Gaius asked, face palming and laughing.

"No, not really," Sirius admitted with a shrug.

"I don't really want him to know that about me." Jiyong said, because he was also of fire. "Let's just not."

Taeyang chuckled. "Okay let's go. I'm hungry." He said still looking at Gaius. All double entendre about it.

"Hey, I know not to splash you with water," Sirius protested. "Should I know more than that?" He seemed uncertain. "I'm not a fire tamer..." He really wasn't. Although dragons were pretty awesome at making spectacles, and some of the fiends he worked with could use fire to do so, he didn't specialize in it.

Gaius laughed in a way that was both shy, nervous and excited.

"Don't eat my tutor!" Sirius said.

"I don't think that's what he meant," Gaius said quietly to Sirius. The boy was so loud.

"He's a dragon. What else would he mean?" Sirius asked. "Oh...you were being dirty, weren't you?" he asked Tae and made a face.

"Dirty? Me..? How could you say such things." Taeyang protested, because he wasn't going to outright admit it.

"Mmhm, on that note...we should go." Jiyong said and nabbed them both and just moved their. He was too lazy to drive.

Taeyang followed behind.

"You two can teleport? That's so lucky," Gaius said. It felt super weird though. But he wished he had such an ability. That was a mostly psychic gift though.

"Nice, right?" Sirius said. "Saves us from awkward car rides," he said. Not that that happened all that often.

"It's similar to teleport." Taeyang explained as Jiyong went inside to find the lady who would seat them.

"Still handy though. But then, I'm a pretty handy guy to have around. Ask Sirius." Taeyang said and lead them both inside as Ji waved them over.

"I'm not sure what he means by that," Gaius admitted to Sirius. Handy to have could just about mean anything. Some people were good at fixing things. Some people were useful in all kinds of social situations. And on.

"He could mean anything," Sirius said. "He's not wrong though. They are both pretty handy to have around." He looked around at the restaurant. He wondered if it was one of those really fancy ones where he wouldn't know what the food was based on the name. He didn't think they'd do that though. Unless they really wanted to show off to Gaius...but would they care that much? He was just his tutor and not even a rare fiend.

Although...Tae might if he was flirting.

But then, Ji had picked the restaurant so...

It was moderately fancy. They weren't showing off but as Jiyong enjoyed cooking he had high standards on food. But this place also did burgers and fries. They weren't made to wait to be seated either.

Tae pulled two chairs out. One for Sirius and one for Gaius.

Sirius and Gaius both sat down in the chairs that had been pulled out for them. Sirius adjusted his glasses and looked around. The place was busy but they hadn't had to wait. He figured it was because Tae and Ji were celebrities. There definitely were perks to that. "This is nice," he said. He got see more nice places now that they'd adopted him. He certainly hadn't with his parents but he'd seen some for work. Being a celebrity stylist had its perks too. He just wasn't as big of a name as them. Not yet. But he was working on it.

Gaius nodded in agreement and looked around curiously as well.