Writer's note: Here I am, again with a new Beyblade-fic! First of all, I would like to thank all the reviewers of "Beautiful Stranger"-fic! Glad to know that you liked reading the fic and that there are Rei x Takao-fans as well! Yay!
Another thing: Takao is Tyson, Tyson is Takao! There was someone who thought the previous fic as a Rei x OC-fic and I would like to correct the misunderstanding. No, it was NOT a Rei x OC; it was a Rei x Takao-as-a-girl fic! So is this one. Takao (Tyson) has been changed into a GIRL by this author! (I hope Aoki-sama won't kill me for this…)
Pairings: Rei + female!Takao / Mao (Mariah) + Rei
Rating: T
Category: AU, short multi-parted fic, drama, romance, WaFF
Fiction note: This is TOTALLY an AU fic; no Beyblading, no Beybladers. Only its characters are in it. A sequel to "Beautiful Stranger"-fic. Rei and Takao are on their way to Rei's hometown in China. But as they are there, it seems that more troubles are on its way for them…
"Chinese Attractions"
Part I
Written by M.K. a.k.a. Fall Angel © 2005
It had already been more than two months from Rei's decision to stay with Takao, who had finally found an apartment of her own to live in. At first, Hitoshi – Takao's older brother – was against the idea of having Rei as Takao's roommate. But after a lot of shouting and arguing, Hitoshi gave up and let Rei be Takao's roommate… for now. (Talk about the paranoid and overprotective brother…)
"Rei, what do ya got there?" Takao peeked over Rei's shoulder, behind the sofa.
"Huh? Oh! A letter from home." The Chinese man answered as he began to read the letter in his hands.
Takao's curiosity took over. "Oh? A letter? What does it say?"
"Nothing much, some news from my hometown and my family wanted to know when I will return home…"
"Do you miss China, Rei?"
Rei exhaled deeply and sat back. "A little." Takao didn't look so convinced with her eyebrow up. "Okay, a lot. I've stayed here, in Japan, much longer than I should have. And tell you the truth, I like living here. It's like it had become a second home to me."
Takao thoughtfully looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Well, why don't you go and visit your family then? I don't mind if you want to go there. Believe me… I know how it feels to be away from the family for long time…"
Rei nodded understandingly. He did know what she was talking about – her former boyfriend, Masato, had kept Takao away from her family. But thanks to Rei's help, she managed to cut loose from Masato's possessive spider web – for good.
"Rei? Are you awake? Reeeiii…?" Takao's hand waved in front of Rei's face.
"W-Wha?"
Takao grinned widely. "You were deep in your thoughts."
"I was? Sorry. Did you say something?"
"I just asked that, don't you want to go see your friends and family in China? No one's stopping you from going there."
'If only you knew, Takao… if only you knew…' Rei thought about it for few minutes and then smiled at the midnight-blue haired woman next to him. "You know what? Maybe I will. It would be nice to see them again."
Takao stood up, smiling back at him. "Good then. I'll help you out and—"
"Why don't you come with me?" Rei's voice cut in, making Takao to look at him in surprise.
"Nani?"
"Now who was in deep thoughts?" Rei teased, "I said: why don't you come with me, to China? I'm sure that my family would like to meet you. After all, I've told them a lot about you in my letters and phone calls."
Takao blushed lightly. "W-what did you tell them…?"
"Nothing much. Just you being my friend and that how we met…"
Takao felt both relieved and disappointed when Rei said that; she didn't know why she felt disappointed from it.
"Wait a minute. You want me to come along?"
"Sure, why not? I mean, you once told me that you wanted to travel and this is your chance." Rei had his elbow on a sofa's armrest as he leaned onto his hand, widely grinning. "Or do you still need your brother's permission to fly with me to China?" The Chinese man teased her, wiggling his eyebrows.
Takao's face turned red from annoyance. "No! I don't! I can make my own decisions!" Rei laughed at her reactions. "What are you laughing about? Rei!"
Rei sprung up quickly from the sofa and ran way from Takao's fists, still laughing at her.
As soon as Rei's laughter stopped and Takao calmed down; Rei made a quick phone call to his family and told them of his plans. When Rei finished his phone call, Takao had already phoned to the Tokyo's airport checking place with her cell phone. Asking for the time of next flight to China and asked for two tickets. The lady luck was smiling above them; the next flight to China leaves the day after tomorrow before the noon.
After all that was done, they began to pack.
When the appointed day arrived, Takao called to her family that she was leaving. Her father and grandfather were okay with it, but Hitoshi wasn't. He tried to stop her from going but it was too late for that, since they already had reserved the tickets, not to mention they were already at the airport, about to enter into the airplane. (She did that on purpose, so Hitoshi – in the end – had no choice but to accept his defeat.)
Rei sweatdropped: he had to admire Takao's way of handling her brother. At least it worked.
The flight wasn't too long and they finally arrived to Hong Kong International Airport, from where they will have to travel in a bus to go to Rei's hometown. The bus was full of people; children, grown-ups and elders. And it was rather stuffy for Takao's liking. Rei seemed to be gotten used to it.
"Rei—Uff!" Takao was pushed over by one the passengers in the bus, "Rei, didn't you say that your hometown is located somewhere away from the big cities and closer to the country and mountains?"
"That's right. We will have to stop at the next town soon and then we will have to go there by a horse-drawn vehicle."
"Sou ka?"
Rei nodded.
Takao sighed, and was yet again pushed over by someone. "Hey!"
Rei chuckled quietly and took a hold of Takao's hand, making her sit on his lap. This sort of action made the young woman blush with a darker hue of red. "There. Is that better?"
Unable to say a word, Takao nodded 'yes' and sat down on Rei's lap comfortably. She remained on Rei's lap for the rest of the journey. Some hours later, Rei told her that they were approaching to the town he mentioned and they had to get out.
Takao was more than glad to be out of the bus – all her muscles were tensed. So were Rei's. They decided to walk around the small town before looking for a horse-drawn vehicle or something close to that, to continue with their journey.
"Thank you for your ride, sir." Rei thanked in Chinese the man who gave them a ride on his vehicle.
"My pleasure lad. You and your lady there take care now."
Rei blushed at the older man's words. '"My lady"? Good thing that Takao doesn't know Chinese so well… How humiliating it would be…'
The man urged his horse to move on; back to where they came from, and leaving Rei and Takao on a path which led to the mountains. Takao moaned in pain once again; she thought the bus ride was awkward but it seemed the horse ride was even worse! Her butt and lower back were a bit sore even though she didn't ride on the back of the horse itself!
"Hey, are you okay, Takao?"
"Gimme a minute and I'll be fine…" Takao moaned in pain, rubbing the lower back. Rei sighed in sympathy; he sat next her and began to rub her back for her. Takao hummed in bliss as the pain started to fade away.
"Better?"
"Unh! Much better! Thanks Rei!"
"You're welcome," Rei smiled, "Well, we're here. My home…" Rei pointed at the town before them. Takao lifted her head to take a look at it and couldn't help but the gasp at the sight of it. It was a beautiful sight; nothing like Tokyo, far from it. There were ancient buildings, new ones as well, a huge and beautifully built temple in the center of the town. Rei's hometown seemed to be a nice balance between nature, ancient and modern time technology – not overly done.
"Wow…"
"It's something to look at all day long, eh?" Rei smiled.
"Yeah… This is incredible! I've never seen anything like this before! How old those buildings are? They look like they are about thousands years old!"
Rei chuckled; 'Takao's passion for ancient histories and buildings…' "You guessed their age right, Takao. They are about 2000 years old. We are the offspring of an ancient people and we've been living most of our lives here, away from the others… because… we're too different from the others."
Takao looked at him. "I remember you telling me that you are nekojins and in the old days, most the Chinese people feared of you because what you are."
"That's correct. But nowadays, they just think of us nothing more than a legend. If they do see us elsewhere, they just think of us as some sort of people with a weird taste for "fashion" and respect our ancestors."
Takao giggled at the face Rei made when he told her what the people of these days thought of nekojins.
A hand was held out for her and Takao looked at the owner of the hand in surprise. Rei was gently smiling at her. "Shall we go?"
At first, Takao didn't know what to do, but then she took Rei's hand and let the Chinese man led the way to the town ahead of them. The whole time, Rei held on Takao's hand, and either of them didn't notice it.
As they were walking through the town, heading to Rei's home, someone was calling out for Rei's name behind them. Both of them turned to look behind and they saw another nekojin running at them, with dark spiky hair with a ponytail on his neck (the hair-style remained Takao a bit of a male lion's mane). He had amber colored eyes and was wearing Chinese clothes with the colors of yellow, green, red and brown.
"Rei!" The dark haired man gasped out after running to Rei and Takao. "You're back! It's good to see you again!" He spoke in Chinese.
"Rai!" Rei took a hold of the dark haired man's shoulder with his free hand, greeting his friend from his childhood. "It's good to see you too, Rai, my friend! How've you been?"
"Same old, same old. Nothing much had happened around here since you left to explore the world." Rai noticed Takao standing next to Rei and also noticed them holding hands. Rai chuckled with a teasing glint in his amber eyes. "Who is she? Is she your girlfriend or something…?"
"Eh?" Rei looked at where Rai was looking at, and blushed. Takao did the same as she noticed where Rei was looking at. Both of them quickly let go of each other's hand, blushing furiously.
"Is she the reason why you didn't come home as you originally planned out?" Rai asked with a humor in his voice.
"Um, well… I, err…" Rei stammered. Rai laughed at Rei's reaction. "Grr! Rai!"
Rai laughed for a moment before turning his attention back to Rei. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your lady-friend there?"
Rei grumbled but did as he was requested to. "Takao, meet my childhood friend and brother-in-all-but-blood, Rai." Rei said in Japanese before switching back to Chinese, "Rai, this is Takao. A friend of mine from Tokyo."
"You didn't need to introduce her to me in Chinese, Rei. You aren't the only one who knows Japanese as well," Rai chuckled. "But anyway, it's nice to meet you, Takao."
"Err, nice to meet you too, Rai-san." Takao bowed a bit to greet.
"So, how long are you planning to be here, Rei? I'm guessing that you will go back to Japan after visiting here."
"Hmm… about a week or two… What do you think, Takao?"
"Sounds fine to me."
"Do you have a place to stay at?" Rai asked.
"Yeah, I called my mom and asked her if we could stay with her and dad. I'm guessing that my landlord must have sold out my apartment to another resident…" Rei rubbed his neck.
"Well, actually, the landlord didn't sell your apartment…"
"Oh? How come? I've been away for at least a year or so..." Rei blinked in puzzlement.
"You see…"
"Rai! You jerk! Where did you ran off to?" A voice called out in the middle of people. Not just any voice, a woman's voice. Soon after the shout, a young woman with pink hair tied into a high ponytail and wearing pink and white Chinese clothes (designed for women) appeared to them, gasping and panting heavily. She had the same eye-color as Rei's – golden. Behind her, were two other young men, following her. One was much smaller than Takao and the other was like a giant in Takao's eyes.
"…Mao moved into your apartment to take care of it while you were away."
Rei sweatdropped nervously. "Oh."
"Rai! Why did you run away like that! You promised me to help with cleaning up Rei's--!" The woman, Mao gasped in startled as she saw Rei standing there before Rai. "Rei! You're back! You came back!" Without a warning, Mao jumped at Rei, wrapping her arms around him, making Rei let out a tiny and startled 'eep'-sound from his lips.
"M-Mao! Calm down!" Rei tried to stop Mao from squeezing the life out of him.
"I can't believe that you're back! This is wonderful!" Mao kept on saying, not paying attention what Rei was saying or at the people around her. Especially Takao, who was starting to feel a bit annoyed of her behavior. More than a bit annoyed.
Rai finally had enough of this and growled. "Mao! Stop fooling around! The people are watching us!"
Mao was about to retort back at Rai, but it was then she noticed the people staring at her. The pink haired Chinese woman blushed furiously and let go of Rei – who was gasping for air. Also, it was then when Mao noticed Takao standing next to Rei.
"Who is she?" Mao bluntly asked, frowning at the midnight-blue haired woman.
"Huh?" Rei looked at her in puzzlement. "Oh! She's my friend from Japan, Takao. I asked her to come with me to visit here." "Takao, this is Mao," Rei nodded at the pink-haired woman. "And those two behind her, are Gao," Rei pointed at the taller of the two and then are the smaller one. "And Kiki."
"Um, hello." Takao smiled at them. The two other men greeted back at her, but Mao kept on staring at her.
'I really don't like the way she stares at me…' Takao thought, some-what feeling being threatened. But why, she didn't know. Takao shooed the thought of being threatened and smiled kindly at the newcomers.
"Hi." Mao finally managed to say with the tone of boredom. But when Mao turned her attention back to Rei, she was smiling and happy. Takao sweatdropped at the sudden change of Mao's mood – now she knew for sure that the Chinese woman didn't like her. Again, a question "why" popped into Takao's mind.
"Rei, are you going to stay at your apartment? I will make you some home-cooking!" Mao sweet-talked to the blackish-purple haired nekojin.
"Actually, Takao and I were going to my parents' place and stay with them…" Rei took a hold of Takao's hand again – to which Takao blushed. "And we're better get going before my mom starts wondering where we are. But we'll be seeing you soon!" "Takao," Rei turned back to his Japanese friend, "Let's get going. I bet that you want to rest after the exhausting trip to here… I know that I need a good rest now."
"Um, sure." Takao answered as Rei leaded her away from his childhood friends. "It was nice meeting you! I hope I'll see you again!"
"It was nice to meet you too, Takao! Rei! Don't you go hiding yourself from us!" Rai shouted after the two of them.
Rei laughed at Rai's words. "I won't, Rai! I won't! See yah!"
Takao waved at Rei's friends as Rei led the way to his parent's house.
Finally they arrived to his parents' home, with his mother greeting them by the door. Rei's mother was overjoyed to see her only son after a long year and hugged him with tears of joy running by her slightly withered face. Despite of her age, she looked much younger than she really was.
Seeing the happy family reunion, Takao felt like she was disturbing their happiness. Rei noticed her looking embarrassed; he took her hand again after hugging his mother. He smiled at her encouragingly. Rei's mother, Mrs. Kon, observed the two of them and smiled secretly at how her son's treated the Japanese woman. Now that she looked at them, they seem to clueless of their own behaviors toward each other. Ah, the youth, but she decided not to get involve what was going on between them too much. They had to realize it by themselves.
Mrs. Kon invited them into the house and showed Takao the room where she will stay in, just next to Rei's room. Takao thanked the older woman and went to inside. The room was breathtaking and beautifully decorated; with Chinese paintings hanging on the walls.
The midnight-blue haired woman sighed as she placed her things to the floor. She smiled widely, thinking that she was going to enjoy being here.
She had no ideas that by staying here may change her life.
To be continued…
Next: Chinese Attractions – Part II
Translations:
1. nani? what?
2. sou ka? is that so?
3. unh! (intoning going up) yeah!
4. nekojin cat-people.
5. –san polite suffix for "Mr.", "Mrs." or "Miss".
First draft: June 30 – July 12, 2005
Re-checked: August 02, 2005
After talk: Ack. No matter how I planned to make a one-shot fic out of this, it STILL became a short multi-parted fic:mumbles: It was becoming too long… Oh well, keep on reading!