"Wow." Tyson whistled, eyes wide.
A redhead was walking past their table, swaying her wide hips just a little too much for Rei's liking, seeing as her denim miniskirt was riding up with each swing, and he really had no desire to see her underwear. Her face was pretty, he supposed. Dark round doe-eyes, small nose, delicate lips. One of the liquid eyes winked at him as the girl sashayed away to her destination, and Rei had a vague feeling of gratitude that someone liked him, even if it wasn't a person he liked.
"Hey, did you see that, Rei?" Max turned to face him, ocean-blue eyes wide. "She totally winked at you! Dude, why didn't you wink back?"
Tyson sniggered, and Rei felt a sliver of the irritation Kai seemed to feel all the time. "It's 'cause he likes Mariah, isn't it? I mean, they're so obvious. Rei's a gentleman, so he didn't want to cheat on his girlfriend."
Max joined Tyson in his Make-Fun-Of-Rei session. "I don't blame you, Rei! Mariah's hot!"
Rei forced a grin, telling himself that it was definitely a bad idea to hit them both over the head, seeing as they were his friends and teammates, and that Max would probably turn dinnerplate-sized blue eyes on him immediately afterwards.
Kai raised himself off his seat with a "hn" that was slightly angrier than usual and walked away, scarf swishing, and Rei marveled at the amount of dignity he had in the middle of a packed restaurant.
Kenny alone remained silent, apparently too absorbed in his research to listen.
Girls were something Rei didn't think about often.
When he did think about them, Mariah always sprang to mind — grinning, pink-haired and big-chested. Mariah, his friend for as long as he could remember. Mariah, the girl who everyone said was totally crushing on him.
He'd liked her too, at one point; had fantasized about kissing her full lips and touching her long hair, but only because he was supposed to. It was what everyone expected of them. Childhood friends, both pretty people — could anyone ask for more? The public thought they were perfect, the kind of couple where both parties were too stubborn to admit their emotions until forced. Some people thought that they'd already been forced, in fact. Rei still shuddered when he thought of that fan letter.
But when he thought about it, really thought about it, it wasn't so perfect. He imagined waking up next to her every morning, having children with her, doing that thing people had to do to have children with her, and he knew it wouldn't be terrible. It wouldn't be terrible, but it wouldn't be good either.
It would be…boring.
And as much as he loved Mariah in a girly-best-friend type way, he certainly wasn't going to give his whole life up for her.
A loud THUD turned his attention back to the real world. Tyson had just fallen off a chair, and both he and Max were in splits of laughter.
I don't think I want to know, he decided, switching his gaze to the remaining two team members. Kenny was as engrossed in his computer as ever, and Kai…Kai was…licking his lips…?
Mesmerized, Rei's amber eyes followed the surprisingly dark tongue like a cat watching its owner dangle a toy in front of it. It left Kai's thin lips clearly defined and shining, and, out of nowhere, Rei wondered what it would be like to kiss Kai. Wet, and hot, and a little awkward, probably. But then Kai was a control freak, and a guy, so he'd be rough and he'd be quick to press Rei up against a wall or a door or something so that Rei would know his place as the girl in the relationship.
…Wait a minute. What? went his inner voice, the one that cut in when he started thinking really stupid things. This time, it was ignored.
How would it be to wake up beside Kai every morning? Probably he'd be scared out of his mind the first few times, and then he'd get used to it. It would be a comforting thing, to wake up and see all that dove-gray hair, maybe be greeted with a smirk instead of a grin. It'd be fun to tease Kai, find out about his habits, his quirks. And Kai wasn't a bad conversationalist either — he was really funny at the times when Rei forgot to remind himself not to laugh at mean jokes.
In fact, spending the rest of his life with Kai would probably be a hell of a lot better than spending it with Mariah. He couldn't think of anyone else with whom it would be more fun, to be completely honest.
This time, he was jerked out of his thoughts by an amused baritone. "Are you enjoying the view?"
Kai was smirking, lips still wet. Rei nearly growled, but caught himself in time. Instead, he smiled, making sure to show his fangs to remind Kai that he wasn't exactly helpless. "I was just wondering why exactly you were putting on such a show."
"If you don't know the answer to that question, then you're denser than Tyson," Kai murmured, leaning forward. Rei could see the predatory glint in his eye.
"Well, I was a little slow to catch on," Rei admitted, stretching so that his shirt rode up a few inches and grinning when he saw that his captain's eyes had followed the motion down to the stripe of skin showing.
"I'll say." Kai snorted. "The last three times I did that, you were totally oblivious." Looked like the Russian wasn't quite as easily distracted as Rei had thought.
"How long have you known, anyway?" Rei asked.
Kai shrugged. "Three, four months. Thought you were cute from the beginning, though."
"Wow." Rei blinked. Then he blinked again. "I'm glad you aren't the type to pine."
"I know how to get what I want." The I'm-A-Supercilious-Bastard smirk was back. Rei found the corners of his mouth twitching up in response.
"Well, if you've been waiting that long, why're you wasting time?" Rei grinned, the first really happy smile that had been on his face for a long time. Kai smiled back, just softly enough for Rei to know that this was more than sex.
And then another pair of lips was on his own, and Rei dropped all his inhibitions and kissed Kai back.
-
The next morning, Rei screamed at the sight of a Russian in his bed. It took three times after that for him to stop shouting, "Rape! Rape!", and another four times for him to be convinced that Kai and he slept together on a regular basis. By the time they'd been together for a week, Rei finally felt confident enough to tell Kai he wouldn't mind spending his life with him.
Kai just smirked and said, "Tch. As if we could live with anyone else."
