Kenyo: Hugs Are Worth a Thousand Words

Ken/Kyo: Kyo offers Ken a hug to console him, but now Ken won't stop hugging him.

    “Damnit, Kyo.” Kyo growled to himself as he sprinted across the courtyard and towards his dorm. He didn’t bother for the front door. He took off to the back and jumped onto the lattice that led up the building. His fingers dug into the wisteria that grew on said lattice.

    It was broad daylight, so anyone could see him climbing up to his dorm. Fortunately, since it was hidden in the back, barely anyone went back there. He climbed onto the outside patio.

    It was the middle of the day, and all his dormmates should have been in their respective classes, but when Kyo entered the dorm, he found Ken at the table, his back to the patio. Kyo strode over to him without any hesitation.

    “Ken?” he asked.

    The other boy quickly turned to him. “Oh, Kyo-kun? You’re home early.”

    “I forgot my laptop,” Kyo explained. He examined Ken and noticed that there were small tears formed in the other’s eyes. “Ken? Have you been crying?”

    Ken nodded with no trouble. “I… I got a letter from my family back in Osaka. When I left for Tokyo, I didn’t have the best farewell. I yelled at my sister, and she told me to never come back home. And now I got a letter saying that she had a child and she wishes for me to come visit.”

    “That’s awesome, my dude!” Kyo cheered, “At least she doesn’t hold any grudge towards you. If you go back, you both can apologize and rekindle your relationship.”

    “That’s the thing,” Ken said, his head down, “That would certainly happen if I went back, but… I don’t want to apologize. I know it was my fault, but I can’t help but still feel petty. I try to rationalize this and tell myself that I’m just messed up in the head. I don’t want to be this way, but I am.”

    Kyo tapped on the table to get Ken’s attention. When Ken looked up, Kyo gestured for him to stand. Ken did as he was asked, and his eyes widened when Kyo wrapped his arms around Ken’s waist, and he wasted no time pressing his head right up under Ken’s chin. It was easy considering their height difference of Ken being 6’2” and Kyo being 5’6”.

    “You are a good person, Ken,” Kyo stated as he rubbed his nose affectionately against Ken’s chest, “You understand that you are the way you are, and you wish to be better. It’s not always easy, but every step counts towards your goal. And always remember that I’m here. And so is Daisuke, Gaby, Shimeji, Rae, Ali, and Ryuu.”

    A lazy but happy smile graced Ken’s face. He gently wrapped his own arms around Kyo’s shoulders and rested his head on top of the other’s. They stayed there for quite a while, both lost track of the time. Kyo rubbed Ken’s back almost too softly with his fingers grazing ever so gently. Ken let out a content sigh and squeezed the other boy a bit.

    A ‘bing’ from Kyo’s cell phone broke the two out of their trance. Kyo let go slightly and one-handedly pulled his phone from his back pocket.

    “Oh right,” Kyo spoke, “I came back for my laptop. Whoops. I guess we lost track of time.” He pulled fully away from the other boy. A whine escaped Ken’s mouth when he did so.

    “Thanks, Kyo-kun,” Ken said softly. He looked disappointed.

    “Of course. That’s what best friends do.” Kyo patted Ken’s cheek, and he pretended not to notice how Ken nuzzled into his hand, “I’ll be back later. Try to sleep on what I told you?”

    Kyo only left when Ken gave him a nod of confirmation. When Kyo left back out the patio, Ken sat back down at the table and lightly traced his cheek where Kyo’s hand had touched him.

    It was the next day that Ken found Kyo making breakfast for everyone. Ken’s whole focus was on Kyo, which made him completely miss the other person helping Kyo in the kitchen. Ken came up from behind Kyo and wrapped his arms around Kyo’s torso, under his arms so Kyo could still move them.

    “Ken?” Kyo asked, “What’s up?”

    Ken murmured something into his shoulder blades.

    “Huh? What was that?” Kyo tried to look at the other.

    “I said ‘Morning’.” Ken went back to his face pressed against Kyo’s back.

    Kyo barked out a laugh. “Well, ‘Morning’ to you too, Cuddly Ken.”

    “You too are the cutest,” came the other person in the kitchen with them.

    The two glanced at Ali, who came over despite not being a morning person. They had their hair tied in a ponytail and an apron on.

    Ken let go of Kyo reluctantly. “Sorry, Ali-kun. I didn’t see you there.”

    Ali waved it off. “No biggie, my dude. I’m kinda surprised you let go of Kyo. The two of you are the cuddliest of us all. Except for Kahlo. Right, Kahlo?” They spoke to the Siamese cat by their feet. The cat’s prominent dark spot over its eyes, which made it look like it had a unibrow, seemed to move upward as it meowed loudly at its owner.

    Ali continued to prepare breakfast with Kahlo by their side. Ken had moved away from Kyo to let him get back to cooking with Ali.

    The rest of the day went by with everyone hanging out, since it was the end of the week. By the end of the day, the crew had gathering around the coffee table to drink beer.

    Ali had recounted a story that happened in their art class when Ryuu interrupted them, which started a huge fistfight between the two dormmates. The others laughed and eventually went home. Gaby and Daisuke had early classes the next day, so they were sent to bed. That left Kyo and Ken to do the cleaning up from the party.

    They cleaned in comfortable silence for a bit. Ken collected cans into a bag for recycling while Kyo picked up trash. The two worked away from each other, slowly backing up until they bumped into each other. They simply laughed and went back to work.

    When they finished, Kyo said, “Well, I guess that’s it. I should probably go to sleep. Ugh, Ali spilled beer all over the couch. It’s still wet too. Damn.”

    Ken stood awkwardly scratching his face. He mumbled something that was too inaudible for Kyo to hear.

    “What was that?” Kyo asked. Ken said nothing as he walked over and wrapped his arms around Kyo again, burying his face in Kyo’s shoulder. “You keep hugging me, Ken.” Kyo laughed.

    “I like hugging you,” Ken admitted, “Thank you for hugging me yesterday. It made me feel better."

    “Of course,” Kyo said, “I like hugging you too.” He turned in the hug to reciprocate. He squeezed lightly.

    “I like you, Kyo. I think I’ve liked you for a while.”

    Kyo rose a brow. “Really?”

    Ken nodded and looked directly into Kyo’s eyes. “Yeah. You and I are so similar, you know. We both crave affection, and we both give it like crazy. You’re one of my best friends, so if you don’t feel the same, I’ll understand. I might be upset about it, but I’ll get over it. Probably.”

    That made Kyo laugh. “I think I like you too.”

    They both stayed there for a bit, hugging each other.

    “Hey, Ken?”

    “Hmm?”

    “Are you gay?”

    Ken looked at him again. “Yeah. I definitely am. I’ve known since I was in grade school. What about you?”

    “I’d say that I was Pan,” Kyo replied, “It doesn’t matter to me the gender of the person as long as I like them.”

    “I see.” Ken hummed. He glanced over at the wet couch and then back to Kyo. “Would you like to sleep in my room tonight? Purely platonic, of course.”

    Kyo seemed to think for a moment before he answered, “Sure.”

    The other boy placed a chaste kiss onto Kyo’s head before he ran off to his room with Kyo in tow.

Happy Belated Pride Month, Everybody!!!

Author's Note

I first want to start off with an apology. I am SO SORRY that I didn't make the deadline that I had set out for myself. I wanted to get 6 fanfics out for Pride Month, but I only did 3 of them. This one, the fourth, was finished before the deadline, but I was too lazy to post it. I want to apologize again and will promise to be better the next time around. I'll also try to put out more fanfics to make up for my mistake. Thank you.

Now to talk about said fanfic. This one I personally really like because both Kyo and Ken are super touch-starved and affectionate, so naturally they would be cute together. I also wanted to put out that Ken is canonically gay (probably since he has eyes for no one but Daisuke) and Kyo is canonically pansexual, like Ali is.

On another note, Kahlo, Ali's cat, makes her first appearance, and it isn't even in the actual Dorm Life story yet. It will be with the next chapter though, so get ready for that.

LGBTQ+ representation, especially in today's society, is extremely important. Therefore, if I have made any mistakes or if you have something to add, feel free to comment or message me about it. I am open-minded and would love to hear your thoughts and/or constructive criticism.

Happy -Belated- Pride Month!!!