When his cousin’s name was on the screen instead of Nate’s, he scowled and reluctantly read the message.
Baikal:Where are you?
Kaz:37 Grand Street.
Baikal:Where the hell is that?
Kaz:What do you need?
Because Kazimir needed for this conversation to get to the damn point. He wanted to ignore the messages altogether, but there was a chain of command, and as much as Kaz liked being in charge of things, he also liked structure too damn much to mess with stuff like that. It was also why he was fine treating his seniors with a little more respect when he’d been in lower grades at Vail.
Now, he was the senior, and he was the one gaining from that rule. Full circle.
Was that maybe what Zane meant about dating? Would Kazimir benefit more from following these bullshit rules? He didn’t see how that was possible no matter which way he turned the problem in his head.
Nate was a handful. Look what Kaz had needed to do just to get the guy to agree to date him. Nothing was going to come easy with him, and now Zane was agreeing that punishment wasn’t the right way to go?
Or, actually. He’d merely stated it wasn’t the typical way. Sure, Kaz liked to stick to certain rules, like filial piety, but that was because he’d been brought up in such a way that he would have been whipped if he’d been rude to an older person. Behaving the way his father wanted had been beaten into himand he’d turned out all right, and it wasn’t like he was planning on laying hands on Nate—not like that in any case.
He had no intentions of hitting his pretty racer. Abuse like that didn’t do it for him.
Baikal:Rabbit is sick, so I won’t be going to class. Take notes for me.
Kazimir cocked his head.
Kaz:What does your boyfriend not feeling well have to do with you skipping class? You feel fine, don’t you?
Had they possibly caught something together? Food poisoning? A cold? Would Kazimir have to take over even more of the responsibilities amongst the Brumal until Kal recovered? He didn’t have time for that, and what’s more, he couldn’t risk it. If he let the leash loose so soon after tying it around Nate’s neck, it would set the wrong precedent. Hell, he was already sitting here struggling over how to proceed after his talk with Zane. He didn’t need his cousin making things any harder on him.
Baikal:I’m fine, but I don’t want to leave him alone when he isn’t.
Kaz:Why not? Aren’t you risking catching whatever he has? You should put some distance between the two of you before it’s too late. There’s that important meeting coming up with the new leader of the Shepherds that you have to be present for.
Baikal:You wouldn’t understand.
Okay, he was getting real tired of people telling him that.
Baikal:You know what being sick is like, how much it sucks.
Kaz:Yeah, which is why I’m telling you to give him a wide berth. So that you don’t get sick and feel like shit too.
Baikal:He feels shitty, so I feel shitty. If you cared about anyone besides yourself, you’d get that. Whatever. Just take thedamn notes and send them to me. Oh, and check in with Whim before you head to campus.
It was tempting to press the issue and make Kal explain the whole sick thing in more detail, but truthfully, Kaz actually understood what he was trying to say. Kazimir was able to empathize with people in the sense that he could grasp what they were feeling and understood those feelings because he had, in fact, experienced them himself. However, it didn’t make him relate.
For him, it was more cut and dry.
Being sick sucked.
Fact.
Rabbit was currently sick.
Fact.
Rabbit felt bad.
Fact.
