The quiet didn't last.
It shattered.
The office doors slammed open with a force that echoed through the room, the sharp crack of impact breaking the stillness like lightning splitting the sky.
"Kai's back?!"
Jake Asterian stood in the doorway, chest rising and falling, eyes blazing with barely contained fire. Heat rolled off him in waves, distorting the air around his frame. His presence alone was chaos—raw, unfiltered, and impossible to ignore.
And then he saw him.
Kai.
There, in Leon's office. Sitting in their father's lap like—
Jake froze.
For a split second, the fire flickering around him faltered, replaced by something sharper. Something more complicated.
"…You actually found him," Jake muttered, his voice dropping, though the intensity didn't fade. His gaze snapped to Leon, then to Richard — who stood silently off to the side—and then back to Kai.
Kai stiffened instantly under the weight of Jake's stare.
Everything in him reacted at once—pride, irritation, old familiarity. Unlike Richard or Leon, Jake wasn't calm. He wasn't controlled. He was unpredictable, loud, and far too perceptive when he wanted to be.
"Get off," Kai muttered under his breath, shifting slightly, though the movement lacked real force.
Jake's eyes narrowed.
"Oh, that's rich," he said, stepping fully into the room, the door slamming shut behind him. "You disappear for two years, and now you're sitting here like nothing happened?"
"I'm not sitting here by choice," Kai snapped, irritation flaring despite everything.
"Really?" Jake shot back immediately. "Because it doesn't look like you're trying very hard to leave."
Kai's jaw tightened.
That hit.
Leon didn't interrupt. He simply observed, his arm still steady around Kai, unmoving despite the rising tension.
Jake took another step closer, heat building again, his temper sparking back to life. "Do you have any idea what you did?" he demanded. "You just left. No warning. No trace. Do you know what kind of mess that caused?"
Kai's eyes flashed. "I didn't ask you to look for me."
"That's not the point!" Jake snapped, a flicker of flame sparking at his fingertips before he forced it back. "You don't just walk away from this family like it's nothing!"
"I did," Kai shot back.
The room went still.
Jake stared at him, something sharp and almost personal flashing in his expression. Not just anger. Not just frustration. Something deeper—something that hadn't been resolved in the two years Kai had been gone.
"…Yeah," Jake said finally, quieter now. "You did."
That silence hit differently.
Kai shifted again, more noticeably this time, but Leon's hold remained steady, grounding him whether he liked it or not.
Jake's gaze dropped briefly—to the way Kai was positioned, to the fact that he hadn't actually gotten up, hadn't broken free. His eyes narrowed slightly.
"…You're really not even trying, are you?"
Kai's expression hardened. "You try getting out of his grip," he muttered.
Jake huffed out something that was almost a laugh—but there was no humor in it. "Yeah. I know."
For a moment, the fire simmered instead of flared.
Then Jake ran a hand through his hair, exhaling sharply. "You're an idiot, you know that?" he said, though the bite wasn't as sharp as before. "Running off like that… thinking you could just live some normal life."
Kai didn't answer.
Because part of him had believed it.
Jake looked at him for a long second, then glanced at Leon. "So what now?" he asked, tone shifting slightly, though the tension still lingered beneath it. "You just… keeping him here?"
Leon's response was calm. Immediate.
"Yes."
Jake's eyes flicked back to Kai, studying him again—really looking this time. Not just at the rebellion, or the attitude, but at the stillness. The lack of real resistance.
"…Huh," he muttered under his breath.
Kai frowned slightly. "What?"
Jake smirked faintly, though it didn't fully reach his eyes. "Nothing," he said. "Just didn't expect you to come back this quietly."
"I didn't come back," Kai snapped again, frustration rising.
Jake shrugged. "You're here."
That same line.
Kai's expression darkened, but he didn't argue further.
Because again—
He didn't have an answer.
The room settled into a different kind of tension now. Not the cold control of Leon. Not the quiet pressure of Richard.
But something sharper. Messier.
Family.
And for the first time since being brought back—
Kai felt it from all sides.