The morning spent itself on lessons Jack would not remember separately.
An instructor filled two boards with the terms of a trade compact and expected the room to copy them before the chalk dust settled. In Applied Numerics, Jack discovered that the dead boy's hand knew three methods for dividing a quantity and preferred the most ornamental one. Arcane Science supplied a demonstration involving six copper weights, a glass rod, and a resonance that made every loose chain in the room hum. The effect lasted less than a minute. The explanation lasted until the bell.
Jack kept up. That was enough.
At lunch, Kai dropped into the place beside him with his hair still damp at the temples and a folded scrap hidden beneath his bowl.
"For your continued education," he said.
Jack opened it under the edge of the table.
A clock occupied most of the paper. It had long arms, a furious round face, and both hands wrapped around the neck of a stick figure whose feet kicked uselessly above the ground. Beneath it, in Kai's quick, ugly handwriting, were four words.
Lunch survives everything.
Jack laughed.
"What is it?" Finn asked.
Jack turned the scrap around. Finn held out his hand.
He examined Kai's drawing with the same attention he gave a mislabeled jar. Then he took the pen lying beside Edric's assignment and added a small cock and balls between the dangling figure's legs.
"Very mature, Lord Ashwell," Edric said.
"I never claimed to be. That's on you, Edric."
Finn returned the pen. Edric took it instead, drew a little brimmed hat on the figure, and passed the scrap back to Jack.
Kai folded over his bowl, laughing into one hand.
No one explained the hat. Finn resumed eating. Edric pulled his pen away when Kai reached for it, wiped the point clean, and aligned it beside his plate.
Jack studied the drawing again. The hat had been shaded carefully. The cock had not.
He folded the scrap along its original crease and tucked it into the inner pocket of his vest.
"Preserving great art?" Kai asked.
"Evidence."
The rest of lunch survived Kai's attempt to steal Finn's pear, Edric's account of why the third Witch Purge source could not be trusted, and a disagreement at the next table that ended with half a cup of milk across the floor. By the time the bell sounded, Jack had eaten everything on his plate and forgotten to watch Dorian's table more than twice.
War Arts met beneath a white afternoon sky. The earlier rain had lifted from the yard in warm dampness, leaving the packed earth dark and springy beneath their shoes. Practice coats and short vests hung from pegs beneath the arcade. The boys trained bare through the shoulders and chest, sweat already beginning to shine along backs before Master Draek finished assigning pairs.
Jack took his staff from the rack.
Kai chose a blunted practice sword and rolled his wrist until the brass guard settled comfortably against his palm. His Academy trousers fitted his narrow waist too exactly to have come from the same store pattern as everyone else's. Even stripped of his vest and plain brass chain, every line of him appeared carefully made.
"Three touches," Master Draek said. "Clean contact. No flourishes after the mark. Begin."
Kai saluted with too much wrist.
Jack struck at him before the performance was finished.
Kai's sword snapped into line and caught the staff a handspan from his ribs. The correction was so quick that the careless salute vanished from it. Jack turned the blocked end down, slid his rear hand, and sent the other end toward Kai's shoulder.
Kai retreated. His heel dragged deliberately in the dirt.
Jack stopped the strike before it touched him.
"Don't," he said.
Kai's eyebrows lifted. "Hit me? Excellent instruction."
"Lose before I've earned it."
The smile remained, but its easy shape did not. Around them, wood struck wood and Draek called someone back into stance. Kai glanced once toward the instructor and brought his sword up properly.
"All right," he said.
He came inside the reach of the staff before Jack had finished resetting it.
Jack gave ground, caught the descending sword across the middle of the shaft, and felt the shock travel through both palms. Kai did not withdraw along the obvious line. He rolled the blade around the staff, stepped across Jack's lead foot, and put the capped point against the hollow beneath his ribs.
"One," Kai said softly.
The point left him at once.
Jack's pulse had jumped for reasons that had little to do with the touch. Kai stood closer than the drill required, breathing easily, freckles dark against the heat rising into his face. The careless boy from breakfast was gone. This Kai held his balance through the balls of his feet and watched Jack's hips instead of the weapon.
Jack wanted him to do it again.
He attacked first.
The staff drove high, reversed low, and caught only air when Kai slipped around the second end. Kai's practice blade skimmed Jack's shoulder. Jack dropped beneath it, planted the staff behind Kai's ankle, and used the other end against his chest to take his balance.
Kai twisted as he fell. He landed on one hand rather than his back, hooked Jack's staff beneath his arm, and dragged.
Jack went down with him.
They struck the packed earth shoulder to shoulder. Kai's breath left in a startled laugh. Jack kept both hands on the staff, rolled across Kai's hips, and put one end against the center of his bare chest.
"One," Jack said.
Kai raised his face. Sweat had loosened his reddish hair across his forehead. Jack's knee was planted between his legs, his weight braced through the staff, and Kai's sword arm was trapped beneath them both.
For one suspended moment, neither tried to move.
"Continue the courtship after the drill," Master Draek said.
Laughter passed through the nearest pairs. Jack got to his feet. Kai accepted the hand he offered and rose close enough that their chests nearly touched.
"He approves of us," Kai murmured.
Jack shoved him back into measure with the middle of the staff.
The next exchange left no room for talk. Kai stopped pretending to be late. His blade found the openings Jack's inherited flourishes left behind, and Jack shortened each movement until Kai had less ornament to use against him. Staff and sword rang, slid, and separated. Dirt tore beneath their shoes. Sweat ran from Jack's chest into the waistband of his trousers.
Kai touched his side. Jack caught Kai across the upper arm.
Two marks each. They reset breathing hard, and Kai showed his teeth above the plain, economical guard.
Jack drove for the third mark.
Kai stepped through it. The staff passed beside his waist; his sword turned toward Jack's throat. Jack released his rear hand, caught Kai behind the neck, and used the forward half of the staff to pin his sword arm across them both.
The capped blade stopped beneath Jack's jaw while the staff pressed against Kai's ribs. Master Draek's black rod struck the ground once.
"Halt."
They remained locked together for one breath longer than obedience required. Kai's chest rose against Jack's arm. His face was close enough for Jack to see a bead of sweat caught in one pale freckle beside his mouth.
Jack released him.
"A simultaneous mark is not a victory," Master Draek said. "It is two boys explaining to a medic why both of them were right. Again tomorrow."
Master Draek pointed the black rod toward the equipment racks.
Kai went.
Jack followed, trying not to trace the narrow line of Kai's back or the way his trousers held close beneath his waist. He failed before they reached the arcade.
The showers filled quickly after dismissal. Steam softened the tiled room and gathered in drops along the stone arches. Boys claimed cubbies, shook dirt from trousers, argued over soap, and carried towels toward the curtained stalls. The noise was ordinary enough to provide privacy of its own.
Jack stripped beside Kai.
His body had nearly finished putting itself right. The bruises behind his knees had faded to yellow. The line at his hip pulled only when he turned too far, and Finn's medicine had closed his heels beneath clean new skin. He pushed his trousers down, stepped free of them, and felt Kai's attention follow the movement.
Jack straightened naked and faced him.
Kai made no effort to pretend he had been watching something else. His gaze traveled once over Jack's lean chest and stomach, the dark hair below it, and the soft weight hanging between his narrow thighs.
"You're staring," Jack said.
"I have an excellent view."
Jack let his own gaze drop.
Kai's cock hung full and lengthening above his balls. It was long and relatively thin, the shaft lifting toward a broad, mushroomed head that had begun to flush darker than the skin below it. He had not finished undressing; his trousers remained caught below one knee, and the position should have made him ridiculous. It did not. His delicate waist narrowed above his hips, framed even more cleanly without the fitted uniform around it.
Jack took his towel and crossed to the last stall.
He opened the curtain, then glanced back.
"Are you coming?"
Kai freed his foot from the trousers.
The smile he gave Jack was bright, but he carried his towel low in front of himself as they crossed the wet tile. By the time he stepped into the stall, his cock had risen nearly upright.
Jack pulled the curtain closed behind him.
The stall had been built for one boy. With two, Kai's shoulder met the wall and Jack's hip touched the stone bench whenever either of them moved. Hot water struck Jack's chest, broke across his stomach, and ran between his legs. Kai stood just beyond the center of the spray, wet hair darkened against his forehead.
Neither spoke.
Jack put one hand around Kai's cock.
The shaft was hot from his body and hard enough to lift heavily into Jack's grip. Kai's breath caught. He braced one hand against the tile behind Jack instead of touching him at once.
"You hid this under the table very well," Jack said.
"Years of training."
The answer came lightly. The sound underneath it did not.
Jack drew his fist up, pushed the foreskin back from the wet head, and used his thumb through the clear fluid gathered there. Kai's hips followed the next stroke before he could turn it into a joke.
Then Kai reached for him.
His fingers closed around Jack's thickening shaft and drew it forward into the space between them. Jack hardened quickly under the firm turn of Kai's wrist. Their hands worked at different rhythms, knocking together once before Kai shifted closer and made room.
Jack backed toward the bench and sat. His legs opened around Kai. Water struck Kai's shoulder and streamed down his chest as he stepped between Jack's knees.
Jack released him.
Kai did not complain. He bent until one knee met the tile and kept his hand on Jack, working the foreskin over the head and down again in long strokes. His free hand settled on Jack's knee. His face was level with Jack's cock, close enough that each breath moved warmly across the wet skin.
Jack watched him watch it. Kai tightened his grip until Jack's thick shaft filled his fist completely, the head dark and bare each time he drew the skin down. Clear fluid spread beneath his thumb and thinned in the shower water.
"Gods," Kai murmured. He slowed long enough to expose the head fully and turned his wrist as though the angle might reveal some flaw he had missed. "Your cock is fucking perfect."
Jack's hips lifted into his hand. "You can keep admiring it while you work."
Kai's grin flashed and disappeared as he bent closer. He learned Jack's response through pressure: firmer beneath the head, slower on the downward stroke, then a full pull that let the foreskin cover him before Kai's thumb stripped it back again. Jack's thighs began to tense around him.
Kai's free hand left his knee. It traveled along the inside of Jack's thigh, passed beneath his tightening balls, and brushed across his taint. One wet fingertip found his hole and pressed without entering.
Jack caught Kai's wrist and moved the hand away. "No."
"All right."
Kai braced that hand beside Jack's hip. Jack kept hold of the wrist, his fingers closed firmly enough to feel Kai's pulse while the other hand continued working his cock.
The bench pressed cold beneath Jack despite the steam. Everything else had become heat: Kai between his legs, Kai's wrist under his hand, water running over his stomach and down the underside of his cock into Kai's fist. Kai built the rhythm until Jack's breath shortened and his grip tightened without conscious instruction.
Kai felt it and slowed. His fist loosened before Jack could cross the edge, leaving only his thumb moving beneath the head. Jack's hips chased the missing pressure once. Kai remained close, watching his face while the urgency receded.
Jack loosened his hold on Kai's wrist. The full stroke returned.
This time Kai took longer bringing him back. He opened his fist around the wet head, closed again on the downstroke, and let Jack thrust shallowly into his palm. Jack's balls pulled closer. His fingers clamped around Kai, and once again Kai eased the pressure away, stopping with Jack's foreskin drawn back and the swollen head exposed inches from his face.
"You like having the reins," Kai said quietly.
Jack could barely make the answer level. "You like knowing when to pull them."
Kai's mouth curved. He waited until Jack's grip eased, then started a third time. The strokes came firmer now, wet and complete, his thumb dragging the seam and circling under the rim on every pass. Jack held Kai's wrist throughout it, tightening when the pleasure climbed and loosening when Kai slowed, no longer pretending the signals were accidental.
The steam thickened around them. The other showers disappeared beneath the water, Kai's breathing, and the slick movement of his hand. Jack's thighs drew closer around Kai's shoulders. He reached the edge again and held there, cock pulsing in Kai's fist while Kai reduced the stroke to a maddening turn beneath the head.
Jack loosened his grip but did not release the wrist. "Don't stop this time."
Kai nodded once and restored the full rhythm. Jack's hand tightened hard around him. Kai obeyed the words instead of the pressure, keeping the same firm stroke while Jack's hips lifted from the bench and his balls drew tight beneath the shaft.
"Kai."
The first spurt struck Kai across the cheek. His eyes widened as Jack's cock pulsed again, sending a thick white line over his mouth and chin. A third burst crossed his chest. More followed, running through the water in pale ropes that clung briefly to his skin before thinning toward his stomach.
Kai stayed exactly where he was. Jack's hand remained locked around his wrist while the last heavy pulses spilled over Kai's knuckles. His body shook against the tile. Kai kept stroking him, slower now, drawing out what remained until Jack's hips dropped back to the bench.
For a moment there was only water and Jack trying to breathe.
Kai surveyed himself. White streaked one cheek, his lips, the hollow beneath his collarbone, and the hand still wrapped around Jack's softening cock. Surprise held him quiet.
Then delight moved across his face.
"Fuck, Jack," he whispered.
He wiped the line from his lower lip with his thumb and studied it before letting the water take it from his hand. He seemed prepared to remain kneeling there and admire the damage.
Jack stood.
His knees were not ready. He caught Kai by both hips and put his face into the wet curve of Kai's shoulder until the stall stopped shifting beneath him. Kai rose with him and closed an arm across his back.
Jack breathed against his skin.
His hands moved lower. Kai's ass filled both palms, firm beneath the water. Jack kneaded the cheeks slowly at first, recovering his strength against Kai's body. Kai's cock pressed hard between their stomachs, wet at the head and untouched since Jack sat down.
"I was beginning to think you'd forgotten me," Kai murmured near his ear.
Jack tightened both hands.
Kai made a small sound and pushed back into his grip.
Jack turned them. He caught Kai by the hips and put him down on the stone bench with enough force to splash water from its edge. Kai landed sitting, startled laughter breaking into a breath when Jack spread his knees and lowered himself between them.
Kai leaned back against the tile. His cock stood from his lap, flushed and dripping, his balls drawn close beneath it. Fully hard, the long shaft made the head seem even more outrageous: broad, blunt, and mushroomed like the end of a battering ram. Jack wondered what that head would feel like set against his hole, then pushing through the tight rim a little at a time. The thought stayed hot in him while water ran down Kai's stomach and gathered through the hair at the base.
"So," Kai said, breathless, "is this the part where you decide my mouth deserves professional competition?"
"No."
Jack wrapped his hand around Kai's shaft.
Kai's smile caught. "Cruel."
Jack pulled him forward until his ass reached the edge of the bench. Kai opened his legs wider without being asked. Jack's other hand passed beneath his balls, followed the smooth line of his taint, and found the tight opening behind it.
He circled it with one wet fingertip.
Kai's head struck the tile with a quiet knock. His cock jumped in Jack's fist.
Jack did it again.
The muscle tightened beneath his finger, then eased when Kai lifted his hips toward the contact. Jack did not push inside. He traced the rim while his other hand drew the foreskin back and worked the slick head with his palm.
Kai lost the next joke before it reached his mouth.
Jack settled into a steady rhythm. He stroked the full length, thumb turning beneath the head, while the finger behind Kai moved in slow circles that made his thighs shake around Jack's shoulders. Kai tried to brace both feet on the tile. One slipped. Jack caught his knee against his side and kept working.
The shower ran across Jack's back. Kai reached down and buried one hand in his wet hair, not directing him toward his cock, only holding on.
"Harder," Kai said.
Jack tightened his grip.
Kai thrust into his fist. His ass lifted from the bench, pressing the tight ring of muscle firmly against Jack's circling finger. Jack held the pressure there without entering and matched the roughening movement of Kai's hips.
The performance had left him completely. Kai's mouth stayed open. Each breath broke louder than the last, but he kept the sounds inside the stall, one hand white-knuckled against the bench and the other tangled in Jack's hair.
Jack watched his narrow stomach tighten.
"There," Kai said. The word barely formed. "Don't stop."
Jack kept the same tight stroke as Kai came across his own stomach in quick white pulses. The first reached his chest. The next spilled over Jack's moving hand and ran between his fingers. Kai's hips jerked away and the hand in Jack's hair closed hard, but Jack released the circling pressure behind him without letting go of his cock.
Water had already begun thinning the cum across Kai's stomach. Jack caught it with both hands and spread the warm slickness back over him. One hand closed at the base of his cock and dragged upward; the other followed before the first reached the broad head. He milked Kai that way, hand over hand, each pass pushing the last small pulses through the shaft. White and clear fluid welled from the slit, smeared across the mushroomed head, and slipped between Jack's fingers into the rinse.
Kai sagged against the wall and let him do it. His thighs remained open around Jack while the overlapping strokes softened from pressure into cleanup. When nothing more emerged, Jack leaned forward and settled his chin into the wet pubic hair above the root of Kai's cock. His face rested against Kai's lower belly and rose and fell with each heavy breath.
The water had not taken every trace of scent. Cum clung faintly to Kai's skin, salt and musk over the warmer smell of Kai himself beneath it. Jack breathed there while Kai's fingers loosened in his hair and moved once across the back of his head.
"You are a menace," Kai said quietly.
They stayed that way until someone two stalls down complained that the hot water was failing.
Kai washed first. He cleaned Jack's hands without comment, turning each beneath the spray until nothing remained between the fingers. Jack rinsed the last white traces from Kai's cheek and chest, then stepped back enough to let him stand.
Boys were dressing beyond the curtain. A towel snapped. Someone had lost soap and accused three innocent people. Thornfield continued around them.
Kai tied his towel low around his waist. The freckles across his shoulders had darkened with heat.
Jack said his name before he could leave. "Kai."
Kai stopped with one hand on the curtain.
"I can't promise you anything other than friendship," Jack said. "I think I might be falling for someone else."
Kai's hand remained curled around the curtain. "That bakery boy?"
"His name is Caleo."
Kai tightened the towel knot. "That's fine. I don't want anything else."
He glanced back from the opening. "Lunch tomorrow?"
"Obviously."
Kai smiled and left the stall.
Jack remained under the water for another minute before following.
At supper, Finn and Edric had already taken their usual side of the lower table. Kai arrived behind Jack carrying two cups and talking to a boy who wanted the practice sword he had borrowed. Jack moved his plate before Kai reached the bench.
Kai sat beside him.
Neither mentioned the shower. Kai argued with Edric about whether a copied diagram counted as a primary source. Finn removed the bruised part of an apple and put the sound half on Jack's plate. Jack ate it while Kai's knee rested against his beneath the table.
The contact remained through the meal.
Later, in room twelve, Jack emptied his vest before hanging it over the chair. Kai's folded scrap fell beside the first clean page of his Witch Purge notes.
Jack opened it.
Jack smoothed the crease with his thumb and placed the drawing beside the page he had kept.