This is a Kai/Rei story. This is my first Kai/Rei story so please forgive me if it's not so original. And read the author's notes because I'm not stealing anything. I only use the characters from Beyblade for entertainment purposes. I also want to say that the story plays in Belgium, Brussels. I know Kai is from Japan and Rei from China. But I'm from Belgium and I know this city the best, so that should be an advantage. Just pretend they live there. It's AU after all. Now, let's get going. This chapter will be from Rei's POV, but the rest of the story won't.
"Finally, my own life," I, the black-haired young man, exclaimed while inhaling the air. I picked up my bag and walked away from the station.
Walking towards a street I looked at the board with the name on it. 'Castle Street', it read. I searched for a map inside my trousers' pockets. When I found it I started searching my way trough the city. Brussels wasn't that big of a city, but could be very confusing if it wanted to. I had to follow this street until I reached the end and then go to the left.
I put away the map again and looked trough the street, which had modern buildings lining it, and I caught the look of a huge hotel. I knew immediately that I'd love this city.
I walked down the street, looking at the immense buildings and expensive shops. I also noticed people were looking at me. Strangely enough, I remained calm. Usually I easily loose my head with such people, but not today. It could be blamed on my good mood, I was finally free. As if a burden had fallen off of me once I had gotten off the train. I knew I was safe now, that nobody would come for me in a land so far away of mine.
I walked the route I had to walk. And with that I noticed that the neighborhood becoming more poor with the minute. Oh yes, there were enough people walking down the street, but the buildings were in an awful gray colour, and in bad state.
Suddenly a woman walked towards a man. I could see it was hard for her to walk and could tell by the look of her that she was a vagabond.
"Sir, can you help me? Do you know a place where I can sleep tonight? It's so cold." She grabbed a bussiness man's jacket.
The man tore himself loose from the firm grip of the woman and walked on like he hadn't even heard her. He crossed the street and began to whistle. I assume he was embaressed, but I found it incredibly cruel of him. The woman just stood there, her arm still stretched desperately. While I walked on I turned around and kept looking at her. I was glad I had stolen some money before leaving home. At least I was sure I wouldn't end up like her.
I bumped into someone. The woman began to swear. I apologised quickly and ran away, diving a bit deeper in my jacket because of the cold.
I walked into a street on the right. The A. Maxlaan. A laan was the same as an avenue, I remembered from my Dutch language book. A better name would be A. Max' Big Alley, I thought, scoffing slightly. At the end of the street there was only garbage.
I walked to quite a comparatively small building in which my apartment should be located. It didn't look like an apartment building at all, more like a small house.
Suddenly I was grabbed by my shoulder and shoved roughly against a wall in one of the alleys on the right of me. I only saw bloodshot eyes. Nothing happened for a few seconds, and my sight went back to normal. I was able to form an immage of the person who had attacked me. I looked up at the young man with fear. He had a pale skin, triangles painted on his cheeks, and two shades of blue hair. He wore some kind of arm guards and his eyes had a feverish look to them.
His arms caught my attention and I noticed little wounds of what I thought were needles everywhere. The guy probably was a drug addict.
"Give me some money, now," he whispered, his eyes darting from one side of the alley to the other as to check if no-one saw us, shoving me roughly against the wall again.
"How much?" I managed to squeak
"Enough," the guy said. He let me go. "And don't try to run, neko-jin, or you're done for." A flash of metal. I saw a knife in the boy's hands.
I started searching trough my bag for some money, tossing aside clothes and books.
"Hurry up!" he barked while giving me a nasty kick to the side. I fell to the ground at the sudden strike as I yelled out in pain. I felt like the whole left part of my torso had been kicked out and I tasted some blood in my mouth. The addict pulled me up by the hair, which caused me to scream even more.
"I won't deny that hearing you scream turns me on, but shut up and search anyway," he whispered evilly in my ear. I began my search again and finally found a pack of paper money. I handed it over.
"Good boy," the drug addict said under his breath while counting the money. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood. Otherwise you'd have to give me more than this." He threw me against the wall again.
My sight became hazy and I felt the soft trickling of blood on my chin. My head pounded of the smacking it had received and my side throbbed in pain. Then I lost myself in unconsciousness.
"My head." I groaned softly, feeling like the ground was moving, even while laying on the ground. The headache that was now rising was unbearable. Slowly, my eyes fluttered open and I saw a dark sky. I looked up at the small amount of stars gracing it.
After what felt like half an hour the headache was almost gone. Or so I thought. I began to stand up, but it returned almost immediately. Neverthless, I started to gather my belongings, believing that I probably held the record of being robbed on my first day. I grabbed the bit of money that was left from my bag and counted it. Another reason to find a job as quickly as possible.
I began to walk towards A. Max' Big Alley again. The building was all hazy as I felt sick and dizzy. Holding on to a wall I began to inhale the evening air. After a while I was able to see better. I walked towards the building and opened the door, finding a small hall and stairways leading to the second floor, where my apartment should be.
Somehow I managed to reach my new home. Number 6. That should be it. I had to share an apartment with a girl named Mariah. Not that I cared, as long as she respected my privacy. My thoughts drifted to the drug addict again. He had been remarkably handsome for someone like him. I scolded myself for the prejudices I held, but felt it was the truth. I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts and ringed the bell. I heard some commotion and a girl's voice yelling: "I'm coming."
The door opened and a girl with black hair stood in the door-way. You could tell her hair was coloured, because the pink was beginning to fade away and her natural black hair-colour started to coming trough.
"Hello, nice to meet you! I'm Mariah Shing. You must be Rei Kon, right?" she said with a smile on her face. I nodded.
"Oh my God, you're hurt! Come in!" she exclaimed, her smile disappearing. It was replaced by a worried look. She moved aside so I could come in. "What happened? Did you get robbed or something?"
Good guess. "I'll be fine... Mariah. Honestly. I was just not paying attention and fell down the stairs at the station," I lied. It felt a bit awkward to call her by her first name already.
"Are you sure? That's an awful lump you have there. And... Rei, is that blood?!" She asked, even more worried now.
"Yes, I'm sure. I'll just have to lay down for a while," I spoke up hurriedly, plastering a smile on my face. If the situation hadn't been this bad, I would've found her nice from the start.
"No problemo." She threw another worried look at me before turning around. "I'll show you your room then."
We stopped at the end of the hall and Mariah opened a door to the left. "This is your room. I know it isn't that much, but it's a good deal, concidering the price. I already made dinner for you, so don't worry about that. I'm going to eat now, but I'll put your plate in the microwave. From tomorrow on you'll have to take care of yourself. Next Wednesday it's your turn to clean the house. Okay?" she said, now turning in some kind of leading lady.
"Got it," I answered. Of course you needed some rules when you live together with someone.
"O.K. then. I'll leave you to your own now. And darling, believe me, you have to do something about your appearance before leaving this house again." Mariah said, smiling slightly before closing the door. I muttered a goodbye.
I threw my bag in a corner and flopped onto my bed. I was disappointed, this wasn't like what I expected it to be at all. As I looked around the room however, I realised that it could've been much worse. There were no posters on the wall, the furniture was old and dusty, and the wallpaper was so ugly that my grandmother wouldn't even concider buying it. But it wouldn't be a problem to patch things up. Once I had the money for it, of course.
I stood up and began to unpack my stuff. All my clothes in the closet, my books on the bookshelf above my bed and so on. Everything was still dusty though, and I started to feel sick again, dizzy too. Maybe it would be better if I just slept for a while. Slowly, I let myself slip under the sheets that were already on the bed, and soon found myself drifting off to dreamland.
This story probably isn't so good, but please review. Flames are made fun of.
R+R PLEASE!
Ja!