No Incest in the House
Warnings: Plotless? Crack-ish?
Ray always had an overprotective streak. When it came to his teammates, he wanted to shield them from the world, and everyone in it. Ironically, most of the times, the stupid teens only needed protection from themselves. With how disaster prone the Bladebreakers were, Ray believed that the best way to prevent maiming, death and emotional damage in the Dojo was through rules! The rules kept discord at minimal, even if they did mean divesting his teammates of their basic rights, at times. But it was all for the greater good.
So whenever he observed some sort of behavior from his teammates which would culminate in one of them physically or emotionally wounded, he'd come up with another rule; in order to keep the peace and sanctity of his house intact.
Several of his more abided by laws were:
* No one invites the Blitzkrieg Boys to stay over.
* Max is not to touch sugar or mustard after midnight.
* No one is going to violate the cooking schedules. No one gets out of cooking.
* Kai is not allowed to leave the state without prior warning.
* Tyson is allowed only a limited amount of helpings at each meal.
And so on and so forth. These rules were made into posters and pasted on the walls of the training room along with the training regimes. Primarily, the Bladebreakers followed the rules in order to avoid Ray's hissy fits; at least the ones which made sense. The nitpicky ones, which were just manifestations of Ray's obsessiveness, were naturally ignored.
The captain of the Bladebreaker was a bit of a different story; he pretended that the rules were non-existent, since his arrogant Russian ass thought they were beneath him. Though, when it came to the important ones, he stuck to them. But that was merely for his own benefit.
So when the said-captain and Hilary, who'd always been close – something Ray had been wary of for a while – started hanging around each other too much, and were to be seen excessively in each other's personal space, Ray realized it was time to take preemptive measures; time for a new rule!
The first Monday of summer break found Ray with his arms folded across his chest, a rolled up poster in his hand, staring down condescendingly at Kai and Hilary. The captain and coach who were sitting next to each other, hip against hip, were – in Ray's mind – in a pretty compromising position. The two teens were staring up at him; Hilary, with a mixture of confusion and annoyance, Kai with antipathy at the interruption of what Ray presumed was their little couple time.
Not anymore, it won't be.
Abruptly, Ray unrolled the poster in his hand and held it in front of him. No Incest in the House. The words were printed in bold writing over the placard. "This sign-" he said, prodding the brightly painted words, "-concerns the two of you!"
Hilary's face seemed genuinely concerned. "Ray, what is wrong with you?"
There was nothing the matter with him; he was just trying to protect his family. Whatever friends-with-benefit-ish relationship Kai and Hilary had in mind, he was not going to stand for it! He was going to interdict any intra-house relationships!
"No incest in the house!" Ray barked out like Kai in his drill sergeant mode. "Or anywhere else for that matters!"
The pair on the floor was staring at him incredulously.
Ray was clearly on a roll now. He was going to explain it to his two friends that their relationship was not happening, not under his watchful jurisdiction. "This maybe Japan, but it's not a Shojo manga!"
"Hilary and I are not siblings." Kai pointed out. The phoenix-wielder was smiling like he found the exchange entertaining. Like, he was in on a private joke that the Chinese man in front of him did not know of. The Russian might be fond of searching for boundary lines and stepping all over them, but Ray was not going to put up with the disaster that would flood the house if – when, actually – whatever was blossoming between the two smitten teens ended badly.
For Ray, Kai's little detail didn't account for much. "You live together, that counts just as much."
"Besides, Ray, we're just friends." Hilary protested, and Ray definitely did not miss how Kai's well-placed mask of indifference and antagonism slipped just a bit to show his frustrated expression of, What? Clearly, Hilary was just lying on a whim here.
Lust combined with hormones! This is nothing but lust and hormones, I say! The ferocious little kitty inside Ray's head, which spoke wise counsel into his ear, was practically yelling. So yes, he wasn't going to fall for Hilary's deceptions! "Yeah right, you think I haven't been noticing the PDA." His eyes darted over to the distance – or lack of, thereof – between the two teens, seeing which, he practically shrieked. "Hands off of each other!"
Kai rolled his eyes, staring up square at his teammate. From his peripheral vision, he could see Hilary go slightly red. As infuriating as it was having the Chinese kitty butting into his personal life, the man's exasperation was nothing but amusing. He smirked. "Kon, my hands are a good distance away from her."
It was true, the phoenix-wielder and the only female member of the team were sitting with no evident distance between them, but their hands weren't touching the other; nope, not at all.
He would instill the fear of his rules in their hearts yet! "No incest is a rule, and that's final!"
The short temper for which Hilary Tachibana was notorious for was clearly beginning to make an appearance. Ray could notice nerves popping on her forehead, her lips thinning into a line, and her eyes narrowing dangerously, as she contrived probably the best way to decapitate him.
"Ray," she began calmly, and her tone made Kai's smirk grow even more mocking. "Get that poster out of my face, and vamoose, now! Shoo. Go!"
The thought that this was for their own wellbeing, was the only objective which had Ray firmly keeping his ground in front of the two scariest people of his team. So the words of his female coach were adamantly ignored. "Hilary, scoot away from Kai." Ray's voice sounded scandalized. "Is there no decency left in the world?"
There was a dangerous silence in which Ray was fanning himself with the top of his poster and Hilary's face was screaming bloody murder, but then out of nowhere, her pretense of anger dropped. "Ray," her voice altered to a whine now. She had come to the conclusion that this whole thing was too ridiculous to get worked up over, nor worth a life imprisonment for killing Ray.
But Ray wasn't hearing any of it, "Scoot! Now!"
Hilary raised her hands in the air as a universal sign of giving in. "Okay, okay, I'm scooting." And as promised by her words, she shifted until she was a respectable distance from Kai. "Happy, Ray?"
Kai, who never paid much attention to conversations generally, had lost his initial interest in Ray's foolishly engendered problem. He was sitting with his eyes closed, trying to appease the increasing headache which gripped him, courtesy of Ray having butted his nose into his personal life far more than his liking, and oh-so blatantly at that. Whatever was between him and Hilary, was supposed to stay between him and Hilary! The fussy Neko-jin could go skin a cat! No wait –
The Chinese kitty-cat however seemed mollified for now. "You two are in so much trouble, if I even see you so much as looking at each other the wrong way –"
Delivering his conclusive warning, Ray turned around and walked away dramatically, his pony tail swishing in the air behind him.
Hilary was snickering at the Chinese man's despotic behavior. Her initial anger having dissipated, she was just amused by how Ray's desperation had driven him to make such an asinine rule. The boy was overplaying the whole thing. She and Kai were… she wasn't especially sure what they were, or if what they were doing had a name. In regards to that, they certainly didn't need any rule against them. Besides this was Kai, he wasn't going to do anything, no matter how much she hoped. Moreover, if the boy wanted to actually make a move, something as trivial as a Ray-Rule wasn't going to stop him.
"So, you plan on listening to the new rule, right?"
"Hn."
His former smirk had faded into his orthodox look of long-suffering, and the atypical grunt of a response seemed like a sign enough that Kai Hiwatari wasn't concerned with the matter at all, or even with her at the moment. Hilary took this as a hint to leave. Dusting off her skirt, she began to get up, only to have Kai grab her by the wrist just as she was halfway up and pull her back down so she was seated back on the floor, pulled up against his side similar to before, except much closer.
A smidge of irritation tainted Hilary's emotions at Kai's bizarre behavior. It vanished, however, when she noted that although he still had his eyes closed and was ignoring her, he hadn't let go of her wrist and didn't seem to be planning to let go of it or her anytime soon, even with Ray being a single room away.
.
And that night at dinner, in a typical Kai fashion of not adhering to any principles – be they of friendship, beyblading, social interactions or, in this case, of the dojo – Kai, who persistently sat down next to Hilary despite Ray's protests, grabbed said girl by the face before the meal had even started, and kissed her… to her, and Tyson's – the only other person present – surprise. Smack at the moment when Ray turned away from the stove a dish in his hand, expectantly dropping it to the floor on seeing Kai and Hilary in a lip lock.
And two minutes into Kai making his advance, the kiss turned into full make out session right there at the dinner table with Hilary on the table top and Kai standing in front of her. It appeared that Hilary didn't mind Kai's unceremonious ambush. It was also evident that Kai had taken the opportunity of defying and flouting Ray's stupid rule to do something, and maybe start something which he had been wanting to for quite some time.
Ray looked outraged staring at the scene in front of him. And Tyson, who was sitting at the very dinner table, took this as an opportunity to scuttle over to the training room, bring back Ray's latest rule poster, and rip the ridiculous thing into two pieces in front of the said-person's very eyes.
He handed over the pieces to the raven-haired boy. "Throw this in the trash, will you, Ray?"
"But, but –"
"There are some rules which just can't last, my friend." At least this one had brought entertainment into the otherwise insipid day. Tyson patted his friend on the shoulder, who was staring devastated at their captain and coach, standing amidst the perfectly good food splattered around him. Tyson was so not planning to go to sleep starving. He wanted to mention to the Neko Jin that the man better make more food to make up for the one he destroyed, but opted to do it a little later when Ray wasn't hyperventilating.
"The rule is law!"
Tyson rolled his eyes. Maybe they could find middle ground. "How about this? If Kai hurts her, if, and only then, you can kick his ass for his violation of the law."
Maybe they could put up a new rule up there tomorrow. Kai is not allowed to break Hilary's heart now that he's stupidly decided to get involved with couldn't help grinning at his brilliant idea. This was much more practical than Ray's unrealistic no-incest rule. Another one could be: Kai is so not allowed to flee the country anymore.
Maybe Ray wasn't all that silly with his tyrannical attitude; this rule making deal was fun. The power to command the other lowly beings aka his teammates, to make them do whatever he pleased sure was enticing.
Ray, it seemed, had finally seen more than his optic nerves could take.
"My eyes!"
The former BBA revolution team member couldn't help give a whole-hearted laugh. He had to agree with Ray there. He settled to make his way out of the kitchen, before his brain melted. He might not be as prude-ish and virtuous as Ray, but even Tyson's eyes were beginning to bleed looking at Kai and Hilary at it, at the dinner table.
He'd better warn Kenny and Maxie from entering the dining room for a while, before their unsullied eyes and innocent brains got scarred, too.
(1) Fluff-ish! xD At least, not angst-ish.
(2) Thank you to Dead-bY-now for beta-reading.
(3) All the gold dust in her eyes won't reform into rain… You had and lost the one thing, you kept in a safe place, remember the face of a girl who'd made you her own, how you left her alone… #summer2013 #1styear #SOKaiHil-ish
(4) Disclaimer: I own nothing! Naught, I say!
