Chapter 6

Enrichment, or Ivan will sit here moping about his cat forever.

"What do you want this time?"

Ivan considers it for a long moment."A second astronaut cat, to rescue the other—"

Till hits him with the sketchbook.

Saturday mornings are pretty boring, if Till is being honest.

He wakes up with a yawn, relieved to find that Ivan is gone. Maybe Till's bed was uncomfortable, who knows. The drawing of the astronaut cat is conspicuously missing from the trash can, but Till sort of expected that, so whatever. Ivan's weird about a lot of things. It isn't strange for him to get sentimental over a doodle.

"Good morning," Io greets when Till finally wanders downstairs. "Hungry?"

Till breathes out a sigh."Mom, I don't deserve you."

"Aren't you a charmer this morning?" Io hums, leading him to the kitchen. "But cooking is a team effort in this house, so get to work, ouster."

Till helps her make breakfast, dutifully mixing the pancake batter and reaching for a bag of chocolate chips for Ivan on instinct—until Io interrupts him.

"Oh, don't worry about Ivan, sweetie. He left early to grab a bite to eat with the team's seniors—Coach Carter's treat."

"Oh, thank fuck," Till breathes. He hates ruining half the batch with chocolate chips.

"Language," Io chides, but it's half-hearted. She's never tried to suppress his... character, unpleasant as it is sometimes.

Breakfast is delicious, courtesy of Io's cooking skills. It's lucky that Till walked down here and found her alone, because the food would be fucking inedible if Ivan helped her make it. He's a menace in the kitchen.

Last week, Ivan tried to make a frozen pizza for Till and forgot to take the plastic off. There have also been multiple instances of metal in the microwave.

After he's done eating, Till considers what he's going to do with his Saturday. He could try working on that new song, or maybe he'll pull out the easel and paint something. Or, if he's feeling lazy, he could play Minecraft with his online friends until dinner, but he did that last week, so.

Ivan's room happens to be the first on the second floor, so there's no helping looking inside it when you climb the stairs.

Ivan also leaves his door open, because he's Ivan and he has nothing to hide. No dirty laundry, no messes that he hasn't gotten around to cleaning up yet.

And that's when Till sees it.

Ivan's laptop is open on his desk, unlocked. Currently in browser with the school's home page pulled up.

Till's mouth falls open. This is, quite literally, the opportunity of the century. He looks around, peers downstairs, but Io is busy doing her morning yoga. Ivan is nowhere to be seen, stuck at a stupid breakfast with his meathead teammates.

Till still doesn't believe Ivan is going to let the suspiciously stiff boxers go. It's just not in Ivan's freak nature. And here he is, suddenly and benevolently presented with the perfect chance to blackmail him back if Ivan does decide to humiliate him.

There has to be some dirt on Ivan's laptop. He's a seventeen-year-old in his final year of high school. There has to be something incriminating on there, something embarrassing. Celebrity foot porn, maybe.

And, if Till is being completely honest with himself, a part of him is genuinely curious about what he might find on Ivan's laptop. Ivan is a model student, a perfect athlete, but he has to have some skeletons in his closet.

Right?

"Just a peek," Till mutters to himself. On some level, he knows what he's doing is wrong. Ivan would probably be genuinely upset with him if he knew. But that's the thing.

Ivan won't know. And he was such an asshole about the Mizi thing, so Till isn't exactly feeling charitable toward him right now.

Resolved, Till steps inside Ivan's room. Miraculously, there aren't any red alerts and tripwires in the doorway. It's just a normal room, albeit sparsely decorated. The laptop beckons him, a literal treasure trove of secrets waiting to be discovered.

Till doesn't sit down. Ivan has a freak memory, and he'd probably notice if his chair was positioned differently than how he'd left it. Instead, Till stands at the desk, biting his lip, before he finally leans down to peer at the screen.

"This is so fucked up," Till tells himself, using the touchpad to pull up Ivan's search history.

Of course, that doesn't tell him shit. Ivan's the sort of guy who probably jerks off in incognito mode, so it's all normal stuff.Researching schools.Sports team statistics.A YouTube compilation of silly black cats.

There has to be something. Something. Ivan can't be perfect. He just can't, not when Till knows what a freak he secretly is. He probably has pictures of women's dirty socks hidden on here, or—

That's when Till notices that there are two Chrome profiles on Ivan's computer. The first is linked to his school email, but the second account is a bunch of random letters and numbers. The profile picture is black.

This is Till's lucky break. He found Ivan's burner account.

Till looks around one last time to make sure the coast is clear, and then he clicks into the second Chrome profile. At first, nothing is amiss. No bookmarks, no strange websites pulled up, but Till sifts through the menu to find Ivan's browser history, and—

The gleeful smile slips straight from Till's face.His mouth is suddenly dry as dust.

A list of porn sites pop up, all with similar titles.

Horny twink step-brother gets pounded by older brotherStep-brothers fucking under blanketSpin the bottle lands on innocent step-brotherVirgin twink step-brother rides huge cock rawCute little step-brother gets dominated by olderStep-brother seduction attemptStep-brother cums inside while younger sleeps

Till.Made a fucking mistake.

It genuinely feels like his world is crumbling down around him this time.

He clicks on a link at random.Emo twink step-brother rides jock— and it takes him to some exclusive porn site Till hasn't even fucking heard of.

Does Ivan... pay a subscription for this shit? Till feels dizzy.

The video plays, thankfully with no sound.The younger twink brother is wearing a bunch of tacky clothes straight from Hot Topic. Black and white striped arm warmers, obscenely short shorts with black thigh highs, and a ratty t-shirt with the fabric spilling over one bony shoulder. He's wearing a choker exactly like the one Till is wearing. Lots of eyeliner.

The older jock brother wrestles with the younger brother until the younger brother lustfully gives in and sucks his dick.

They're in some sort of locker room. Then, he rides the guy's huge cock like a pro.

Till can't even imagine taking something like that up the ass.

There's a tension in Till's head. It hurts, pounding in time with his heartbeat. His throat feels dry and tight. Once the video finally finishes, he clicks on another at random. A different title with a different scenario, but the content is the exact same.

Older step-brother pounding into the younger.Till clicks another. The same thing.Over and over.

Any thoughts of looking for dirt on Ivan are now long gone.A rollercoaster of emotions surges through—