Crystal: Hello, everyone! Here I am with another fic! Err...to tell you the truth, I'm suppose to have posted this up right after I'm finished with Breathe (my other story), but... it's been nagging me a lot, so now I have to post this up...

Anyway, there are somethings that you must know first!

1: I'm going to use the un-dubbed version of Tala and Bryan's names

2: And of course the legend:

"/blah blah blah/" - someone speaking in another language

'blah blah blah' - thoughts

Now...that's all... I think, he-he anyway, here's the chapter, enjoy! --smiles cheerfully--

Warnings: shounen-ai, and some mild swearing

Disclaimer: Don't own, so don't sue.


Take my breath away – Chapter one

Sounds of guns banging surrounded the alleyway as a big, large group of men were coming out of the two black vans one by one. Two of the men who went out of the van are the most notorious men in all of Moscow, Russia.

Hiwatari Kai, a 19-year-old young man with dark, mesmerizing crimson eyes and two toned blue hair. He's the grandson of a wealthy Russian Mafia Leader, Hiwatari Voltaire, a powerful man that has many contacts with the society. Although it was Kai's grandfather that made him powerful and wealthy, every men that had worked for them always obeys to the crimson-eyed man more than his grandfather. And another thing, ever since Kai had found out that his grandfather had found out that his parents were assassinated by some of his grandfather's henchmen, the younger Hiwatari hated his only living relative with a passion and swore himself that he would get revenge against him…

The other young man was also 19 years old. He has lilac hair and moonlit eyes that would make anyone cower in fear if they had crossed him, especially at night. He goes by the name of Kuznetsov Boris and he's Kai's friend, and also probably the only one who Kai trusts the most. Like Kai, most men that work for them also obey every command Boris tells them to. Boris came from a wealthy Russian family whose also has their allegiance with Kai's family, and pretty soon they had emerged to the most powerful people in all of Russia.

Even though both their families had emerged to become powerful, they were still blinded by greed and so; they started to have small conflicts, which soon started to huge disagreements. To solve this problem, Voltaire Hiwatari had hired his greatest assassins to exterminate some people who opposed of his ideas. Most of the men that Voltaire's assassins slaughtered were Boris's relatives including his father. When Boris had found out that his whole family have been murdered, he was devastated. Not that he loved his family, oh no, more like he held much respect for them.

For three long years, Boris held a grudge against Kai's grandfather, and it's still growing too much to hate and loathe. Like Kai, the lilac-haired Russian also vowed himself to get revenge against the Mafia Leader, though he couldn't do it alone.

"/Everything all set?/" Kai's icy voice seemed to be much more colder due to the arctic weather, making most of the men either nod, or just plain flinch at the tone of Kai's voice. "/Very well. Dmitriev, you take half the men into the other side of the building, when you hear gunshots go ahead inside, do I make myself clear?/"

Kai's right hand henchman nodded his head, and motioned at least half the men Kai told him to bring and left for the other side of the building, while him, Boris and the rest of the men were on the back, by the back door.

The crimson-eyed Russian looked at Boris and smirked. "You ready?"

Boris rolled his eyes. "I was born ready, you idiot."

After the small "pep" talk, both Kai and Boris kicked the back door hard, making the door break into pieces. Kai went in and check if the coast was clear, when it was, he motioned Boris and the other men to follow him and come inside. The hall seemed very empty; surprisingly no one was guarding the place.

"You know…this is weird," muttered Boris, as his moonlit eyes checked the surroundings of the place. "It's like they're unprepared. Do you think they know that we're going to be here and just chose a different location?"

Kai shook his head as his crimson eyes wandered at a door. He turned to his best friend and smirked. "They're not stupid, Kuznetsov. How the hell they can find another location if the law enforcements are looking for them?" When he saw Boris shrug, Kai turned his attention back at the door and walked towards the wooden board. He pressed his ears against it and tried to hear if there were voices coming from the other side.

Fortunately for him, there were sounds of men talking and clanging of glasses on the other side of the door, and then he turned back towards Boris and the rest of their henchmen, indicating that the door he was standing right across from was the door they were looking for. Boris got what Kai meant and walked towards.

"Is this it?" he asked. Boris saw Kai's nod and turned his head towards the henchmen, motioning them to move closer. With that he readied his gun and pointed it at the door.

'Three…two…one…' With that, the two Russians started to fire non-stop at the door. It was too loud to hear if there were any screams of curses and whatnot, but right now as the two kept on firing they didn't care if their targets scream in pain. They only have one task and one task alone: to destroy Hiwatari Voltaire and the rest of his henchmen.

When they had ran out of ammo, they got their second gun---just in case some people survived the attack---and pushed the wrecked door open, unknown to them that their henchmen and pulled out their own pistols and pointed it at the two Russians.

To both Kai and Boris's surprise, Voltaire was standing right in front of them smirking smugly, while a whole bunch of men were standing around them with their revolvers, smiling sadistically. The Mafia Leader motioned Kai and Boris to look behind them, and when they did, what they saw got them surprised. The men that were following their orders were standing right in front of them with their guns out pointing out at them.

"Well, well, well…what do we have here…" Voltaire drawled, as he watched his thugs push Kai and Boris roughly onto the ground, taking their guns and also pointing it at them.

Kai glared at his grandfather menacingly. "How did you fucking know about this?!"

"Didn't I tell you that when it comes in a life of being a Mafioso, you don't trust anyone?" Voltaire gestured someone from the corner to come and show his face. The figure that was hanging in the corner showed his face, and when he did, what Kai and Boris saw that it was Dmitriev who sold them to his grandfather.

"Dmitriev?!" yelled both Kai and Boris shockingly. Dmitriev just smiled in a sinister way.

"Enough! Now…Dmitriev tells me that you both are planning vengeance for your relatives." Voltaire paced around them like a vulture. "But I must say I'm quite astounded by your nobility. Though, you both are wasting your time, they absolutely have no honour to be avenged."

Hearing what Voltaire said, Boris stood up and took out another gun pointing at Voltaire's heart. "I dare you to say that again," he muttered venomously, his finger was itching to pull the trigger.

Voltaire merely looked at Boris with a calm façade on his features and tsk-ed. He gave an evil smirk, and without any warning, he punched the younger Russian's abdomen, taking the gun away from him and giving it to Dmitriev, who was smiling triumphantly. Voltaire pulled up Boris by the hair and sneered at him.

"After all I've done for you, this is how you repay me?"

"Hah, like you've done everything for me," Even though Boris was in pain, he managed to give Kai's grandfather a death glare and a smirk.

Voltaire was fuming, how dare he speak to him like that?! Voltaire gave Boris a last punch and threw him down on the ground right beside Kai who was also fuming.

"Leave them here, and make sure you no one and I mean no one gets in here, alright?" commanded Voltaire. "And don't forget to leave the "gift" that I generously gave them here as well, alright?" He gave a last smirk towards Kai and Boris's way and then left outside, and into his awaiting limo.

----------

-- Rei's POV --

I hugged my coat tighter when I left outside the building. Man…I never knew that it would be this cold in Russia! But then again…I never knew that I would come here. I look to my right where I saw my best friend walking calmly, not caring about the chilly weather.

"Yuri," I began, amazed that there's smoke coming out of my mouth when I talk. "Tell me again, why the hell are we here in Russia?!"

Ah, I haven't introduced myself, have I? Well, my name is Kon Rei; I'm 18 years old, just got out of high school and now in the outskirts of Moscow, Russia in hopes of finding this person so my companion and I could at least get to our university alive and well. Though I don't think that would come true since right now we're lost, hungry, cold, oh and did I mention lost? And to think, my best friend is Russian himself for Kami's sake! But then again…he hasn't been here for ten years so I really can't blame the guy.

"Rei-chan," he sighed and faced towards me, not minding the cold at all. "We're here because of that scholarship that we received, remember?"

This is my best friend: Ivanov Yuri. He's also 18 years old and also just got out of high school. People say that he's a cold-hearted idiot with a maniac laugh, but what do they know? I've known Yuri since I was 7 years old. So I basically know everything about him. We're inseparable, like twins doing stuff together.

"Yeah I know that, but why Russia? I can barely speak the language at all! Not to mention the cold weather," I shivered again, still hugging my coat tighter.

I saw Yuri shake his red head, and chuckled. "Relax, even though I haven't been here for 10 years I still know how to speak the language. So as long as you stick beside me, you have nothing to worry about."

We kept on walking further, looking for a building with the numbers 5631 labelled on it. We were told by our high school that we had been accepted at this university (with the cold weather I just suddenly forgot the name of the campus), and that we're going to see a man named Mr. Dickenson so he could take us to the university.

However, so far, Yuri and I haven't found a building with the numbers 5631 labelled on it, and we also haven't found a man named Mr. Dickenson either. I think this is some kind of conspiracy of so---

"Rei! Look over there!" Yuri pointed at a building, looking excited and anxious.

I gave him a look saying, 'Are you daft?' and rolled my eyes. "Yuri, that's just a building, what's so exciting about that?"

Yuri gave me a glare and said, "You're such an idiot aren't you? Look closer!"

I brushed the idiot comment out and looked closer at the building. I was about to smack Yuri's head when suddenly saw the numbers 5631 in golden writing, attached onto the side of the building. I grabbed my best friend's arm and dragged him to the building. When we walked towards it, we saw an old man with expensive robes entering his limo. Man…talk about richness! Anyway, we went inside the building, though we were suddenly stopped by this big men that are wearing black suits---like those bouncer people from clubs---and looked at us like Yuri and I were some kind of parasites.

"/Just what do you think you were doing?/" one of them sneered in a different language and it sounded harsh and guttural, as he stopped Yuri and I from entering the doorway. Oh great, now I'm the only one who doesn't speak Russian here!

"/We're here to meet someone,/" Yuri replied calmly in Russian as well. Though, I know that he's getting irritated. To tell you the truth, he's been muttering in his breath how cold Russia is. Probably he isn't used to cold weather anymore, after all he's been living in China, and in China it's not really that cold.

The second men gave a harsh laugh like it's some kind of joke what Yuri said. What are they talking about anyway?! That's it, the sooner Yuri and me get to the campus; I'm going to their library and learn that language!

"/Sorry, brats. This building is off limits,/" replied another man. Even though I don't understand what they're saying, I get the feeling that we're going to get into trouble.

I looked at Yuri and back at the men, I did that for a couple of times and sighed. "Yuri, what's going on?" I whispered.

"Prepare to run, alright?" he muttered. I just gave a nod and got myself ready, when I was about ask what the hell is he talking about, Yuri grabbed my arm and shoved the big men out of the way---Yuri is THAT strong, trust me---and ran inside the building.

We heard a yell behind us and we figured that the big men were running after us. Thank god Yuri and I were in the track team and that we run fast, because, even though they look big and fat, they can run like cheetahs! Anyway, we kept on running, though I know that we can't keep on running forever, and I think Yuri knows that as well.

-- Normal POV --

"We got to find some place to hide," panted Yuri as he and Rei kept on running away from the mobster men.

Rei tucked in some of his raven lock on his ear, and glared slightly at Yuri. They had been running for a long time now, and even though Rei's a neko-jin, neko-jins can get tired at times too.

Yuri and Rei turned around the corner and saw three doors. One of them had holes indicating that guns were mutilated it, and so Yuri thought that those men would think that, that place is where the last area they would look for them. With that, Yuri kicked the wrecked door and went inside the room, hauling the Chinese boy with him.

"Yuri! What the hell is going on?! Why the hell those mob Russians chasing us?!" Rei asked frantically, trying to catch his breath.

Unknown to him and Yuri, there were other people in the room besides them. One has two toned blue hair and cold crimson eyes, and the other one has lilac hair and icy moonlit eyes. Both of them were watching Yuri and Rei with an intense gaze. In the meantime, the other two---Yuri and Rei---were too busy to look for a hiding place to notice Kai and Boris, both were tied unto the chair tightly and their faces were cut, bruised and bleeding slightly.

"Looking for some place to hide?" Kai finally had, had enough and decided to make his appearance known to Yuri and Rei.

Rei, who was still gasping for air jumped at least three feet when he had heard Kai's icy voice, startled because he didn't know that there were people here besides him and his Russian friend.

Speaking of Rei's Russian friend, Yuri just looked at Boris and Kai calmly and ignored the two, looking for hiding place that would fit for him and Rei. He was surprised though, because those Russian mobsters run fast and if they were running fast, they would have barged into the room by now. Suddenly, Yuri saw this really good hiding spot by the window, pulled Rei, and shoved him inside.

"Oof! Yuri! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Just shut up, Rei! And don't move!" Yuri said, looking for another hiding spot for himself.

By the time Yuri had found a hiding place for him, and shoved himself inside the space, the Russian mobsters barged in the room looking for any signs of the Chinese and the Russian. At least three big men were looking for them, in any nook and cranny of the room. One of them were by Yuri's hiding place, and he was going to move the object aside,

'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…' Yuri yelled inwardly, closing his eyes tightly, waiting for the object in front of him being moved…

But none had come.

"/What are you doing?/" the red head Russian opened his eyes and realized that one of the men that were tied up at the chair spoke.

The man, who almost found out where Yuri was, gave Boris a glare and muttered to his other Russian companions that the two brats---meaning Yuri and Rei---had gone the other way. And with that, the mobsters left the room, to Rei and Yuri's relief.

In a few minutes, both of them left to their hiding place and sighed with relief, though they weren't very sure if they could leave the building safely. After all, they got themselves into serious trouble.

Feeling all tired, exhausted, and hungry, Rei sat down in one of the wooden chairs, while leaning his head to his right with his hand supporting it.

"Feeling tired, Rei?" asked Yuri, as he looked outside the window.

Rei gave a tired glare towards Yuri's way. "No…you think?! I just want to go meet this…this Mr. Dickenson person so he could take us to our new university, then get some nap, then go to their library, and then maybe, just maybe I could try to teach Russian myself!"

"Didn't I tell you that I'd teach you?" asked Yuri, frowning slightly.

"Ok, sorry to interrupt this little conversation, but could you at least take this ropes off us?" Boris muttered, glaring at Rei and Yuri back and forth.

Yuri looked at the other two Russians. "Wow…I never knew you guys speak English."

Kai rolled his eyes and muttered, "He just did, didn't he?"

Yuri ignored the comment and looked at the window ledges. He noticed that it can be opened, and so with that, he searched the room for something that can open the window. Rei looked at what Yuri was doing curiously and,

"What are you doing, Yu-chan?" he asked, still feeling very tired.

"I'm looking for something that can open the window," replied Yuri, while pointing at the window. "I figure---what's so funny?"

Boris gave a smirk, still struggling to try and take the rope off him. "Yeah, break the window and let those mobsters hear the loud crash and catch you."

Yuri muttered some incoherent things in Chinese under his breath, though unfortunately Rei heard and started to laugh softly. The neko-jin stood up, walked over towards the window, and examined the ledges. He tried to push the window up, trying to open it, though unfortunately it was shut tightly. Rei tried again, now only this time he was getting irritated.

"Come on," grunt. "You stupid window," grunts and pants. "Open, damn it!" Rei pushed the window up one more time, and by the time that happened, he's golden eyes have slits in them and his fangs were appearing from the corner of his mouth into a snarl. He was ready to punch the glass, though he was stopped Yuri.

"Rei don't. They're right," he pointed at Boris and Kai, "As much as we'd love to destroy this lovely window, we can't."

The red headed Russian walked across towards the tied up Russians and he peered his icy blue eyes at them suspiciously. He has a hunch that they were tied there for some reason, so he doesn't trust them one bit. Though to tell you the truth, it seemed that they were the only ones that know how to get out of this hellhole besides those Russian mobsters that were looking for them.

He sighed and crossed his arms, looking at them distrustfully. "Well, if we let you out of those chairs, then would you help us get out of here?"

Hearing Yuri's offer, Rei choked on his saliva and started to cough really hard; dismissing that by the fact that he's still coughing, he made his way towards Yuri, Kai and Boris, and jabbed his forefinger onto Yuri's chest. "Are you nuts?! Who knows what could they do to us!"

Kai smirked at Rei's franticness. "Aww…is the little kitty, scared of us?"

The Chinese neko-jin glared at the slate-haired Russian and scoffed. "No I'm not. Fine, Yuri and I will untie you. By then, you both better not do anything drastic."

With that, both Yuri and Rei untied the ropes off, freeing Kai and Boris off their chairs. Both Russian stretched their tense muscles, and gave a cold yet appreciative look in the direction of Yuri and Rei's way.

Rei tapped his foot while alternating his foot from one to the next, as if waiting for either Kai or Boris to say something, when all of a sudden he heard this vague sound.

Tick tock…tick tock…

The neko-jin jerked his head to where he had heard the sound loudly, and walked towards there. The three Russians watched Rei as he kept on walking towards a small desk.

"Rei…what are you doing?" Yuri raised his red brow, while watching Rei pulling one of the drawers by the desk.

When Rei had pulled one the drawers, he saw a square object, wrapped up neatly with colourful paper, he turned his head at Kai's direction and asked, "Do you know that there's gift in here?"

Kai walked towards Rei and peered inside the drawer, when he saw the neatly wrapped-up gift; his distant, crimson eyes widened in open shock and grabbed Rei away from the drawer. The Chinese man was about to protest about Kai grabbing him away, but he discontinued when he saw the Russian's face. Kai had that uptight look on his face, meaning the present that he saw was some kind of weapon.

Not only Rei saw Kai's tense look, Boris also saw it and burrowed his eyebrow in puzzlement, thinking what could be inside the gift. "What's in the present?" When the lilac-haired man saw Kai shrug, he went over the drawer, not paying any attention to Kai speaking and lifted the gift off from the drawer.

Tick tock…tick tock…

Boris placed the gift on the surface of the desk, and then ripped the colourful wrapping off the box; he then ripped the box and what he had seen made him look with disbelief etched on his face.

"Well? What is it?" asked Yuri impatiently, now copying Rei by tapping his foot and shifting it from one to another.

"It's a mother fucking bomb, that's what!" The red head stopped tapping his foot and widened his eyes. A bomb?!

Rei noticed that Kai was still holding him, so he walked away from the crimson-eyed man and glared at everyone. "Well, does anyone know how to turn off the bomb?" He didn't wait for the answer, for instead he turned to Boris, "How many minutes left until that bomb goes 'Kaboom!'?"

"10 minutes left."

Rei sighed. "Okay, we don't have a lot of time to turn the bomb off, so any suggestions?"

Yuri raised his hand. "I say we break the window."

Boris and Kai glared at Yuri like he was some kind of idiot from the idiot convention. Sensing that he was being glared at, Yuri shrugged his shoulder with his idea, saying either that or be barbequed.

"The thing is," Boris started, rubbing his temples, feeling already irritated at the situation (which he already is). "You're not thinking clear enough…err…what the hell is your name anyway?"

"Yuri."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, you're not thinking clear enough. Breaking the window is too shallow."

Kai walked towards the door and looked outside. He then turned his head towards the others and smirked. "I got an idea."

Seeing Kai's smirk, Boris smirked as well, making the other two---Yuri and Rei---roll their eyes, and just kept quiet, waiting patiently for Kai's plan. But before Kai could lay it down on them, Rei had gotten to speak first.

"Wait a minute," he said, while putting his hand up. "Before we could hear this idea, don't we need to introduce ourselves first?"

Kai gave an angry look at Rei and growled. "We don't have time for that shit. Right now we need to get out of this damned building; if we get out of here alive, then we do that shit."

"Argghh…well, could you just at least tell us your names?" Rei retorted, putting his hands on his hips.

"Kai Hiwatari."

"Boris Kuznetsov. Now it's both your turn to tell us your names," Boris said, looking at Yuri and Rei with a menacing glance.

"Rei Kon."

"Yuri Ivanov."

After that rather pleasant introduction, Kai had told them the plan. The plan was to get out of the building, using the entrance. At first, everybody thought that the idea was little bit far-fetched, though Kai hasn't really explained it thoroughly yet. Anyway, Kai told the other three that they have to make sure that the Russian mobsters didn't left the building yet, and with that, Boris and Yuri will check if the Russian mobsters were still there and if they're still there, both of them would try to take all of them on. Why is it that Boris and Yuri would check it? Well, these four people---Kai, Rei, Yuri and Boris---they don't trust each other except for the people they had known longer. Anyhow, when Yuri and Boris had gone to check the Russian mobsters, Kai and Rei would take the bomb and leave it by the lobby area when Yuri and Boris knocked down the Russian mobsters.

"Why were you and your friend got caught?" Rei asked Kai, while waiting for the signal.

Kai disregarded Rei's question, he was wondering if whether he should tell that him and Boris are also a part of the mob gang and got betrayed by or he should just dropped the subject. His crimson eyes checked how many minutes until the bomb explodes.

4 minutes.

The Russian grabbed Rei's petite hand and ran down towards the lobby area, forgetting to wait for the signal.

----------

Meanwhile, in the lobby room, Yuri and Boris were too occupied to send out the signal, because it seems that there were too many men fighting them. The two Russian already knocked down at least half the men but the others just kept on coming.

Boris noticed that one of the men had a shooter in his hand and had to dodge every single bullet, while trying to knock down the rest. In the meantime, Yuri was having trouble as well. One of the men he'd been fighting with just couldn't seem to be wounded with every punch or kick he gives, until he had seen a gun lying innocently on the floor. He'd never used a gun before, but he still had to fight for it, since the man had seen the gun too.

"Yuri!" Yuri turned around and saw that Kai and Rei had come to the lobby. "We have at least 20 seconds left! Leave them behind!"

With that, Yuri gave one more punch at the other guy's gut, and ran out of the building, with Rei grabbing his arm and hauling him to go faster.

3...

2...

1...

BOOM!


Crystal: Done with the first chapter! --smiles-- Err...gomen ne for the errors and whatnot if there's any (hope that there isn't...), and if there is, please don't hesistate to tell me! With you guys pointing out the stuff that I need to correct, then I'll be as happy as a...uh...a tree! --smiles and sweat drops--

Tala: --sweat drops too--

Crystal: Well, this is me Crystal saying, good bye and see you all later! --waves happily--