The sequel to Sakura High is here! I hope you're excited because I sure am. It takes place about ten years after we last heard from these precious teens and will focus on our favorites Kai and Rei. I have a few pointers, such as revealing more about Rei's past where I will put up warnings.
The genre is kinda friendship/hurt/comfort/drama/humor/romance but I could only choose two so oh well.

Title: The Final Masquerade

Summary: Two people brought together by what some might call fate have a chance to start over. Are they ready to drop the masks and start over without lies?

Warnings: None for this chapter

Author's Note: It's been a while since I wrote at all so this might be a little bumpy in the beginning but I'll get a hang of it again I believe. This is a hinted boyxboy story. Boylove. Gayness. Don't like, don't read, don't flame.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade.

Tearing me apart with words you wouldn't say

The sun slowly set on the sleepy city of London. It crawled into the rooms and lit up the white walls of the apartment. The birds made it clear to the world that they were indeed up and ready to sit around town and wait for people to drop food on the ground.

It started as an ordinary Tuesday but quickly became a not ordinary Tuesday. The sun didn't wake Kai from his slumber, neither did the birds nor his alarm. A loud high-pitched scream woke him up with a startle.

He gasped and looked around. The dark blinds were down and prevented every ray of sunshine to enter his room. On the desk his wallet was untouched and there were no police sirens outside. Had the scream been a dream? No, he was sure it was real. It came from somewhere in the apartment.

On wobbly feet Kai stood up and walked over to the window. Morning wasn't a concept he liked, especially when the clock was… he reached for his phone and forced his eyes to get used to the light. 05:21. He groaned and put it down. There better be a damn good reason for that wake up call or he'd give someone a reason.

Without bothering to put on clothes he walked out of his room to find the cause of the scream. It couldn't be anyone else than his roommate.

"Bullshit!" Tala's voice made him look around in wonder. It was too early in the morning to deal with bullshit.

"Valkov," he grunted and rested his head on the wall. It wasn't even past six in the morning, what was that red-head doing up? His scream must have awoken the neighbors. If it was because of a spider Kai would kill him.

"Bathroom!" Tala's distressed voice answered his morning grunt. Kai collected his willpower and walked over to the bathroom. He could close the door and jam it so Tala wouldn't get out. That would give him a peaceful morning.

"What?" The world better be ending, he added in his head.

"Come over here and look at this," Tala motioned at the sink for him. He pulled his hair back in an attempt to keep it out of his view.

"What?" Kai repeated when he stood by the sink next to the soon-to-be dead man.

"This," Tala turned on the water tap with a disgusted expression on his face. It took a second before brown colored water flowed out from the tap.

"Shit," Kai groaned and took a step back. Tala nodded.

"Yes, that's exactly what it is. I tried to call the landlord but their office doesn't open until six," a disapproving frown found its way on his forehead as he explained how he, just like on any other normal day, had gone up to get ready for work and reached for his toothbrush and thankfully reacted to the foul water.

"That's when you screamed," Kai noted and leaned against the door frame. Tala pouted and looked at the sink. "If that's all I'm going back to sleep," he turned around and ignored Tala's rant behind him.

"What do you mean that's all? We have shit coming out of the drains and you're just gonna go back to sleep? Kai!" He closed the door behind him and fell down on his bed again. He wasn't a plumber, the office didn't open until six, and the apartment wasn't written under his name so he couldn't do anything useful in this situation so he might as well sleep.

The time was around 9 and the sun was up on the sky when Tala had finished his phone call to his office explaining why he wouldn't come to work for perhaps a day or two. His job was important but his clients simply had to wait. He wouldn't leave home without brushed teeth and the current shitwater prevented that.

"Thank you for understanding. Have a good day," he hang up and let out a deep breath. He was calm, this matter wouldn't upset him. He made phone calls around the globe to find solutions to all the problems. There was just one tiny little problem left.

"You're dressed," Kai pointed out the obvious as he entered the kitchen in sweatpants. He didn't like to walk around all covered up at home, it was the one place he didn't have to wear a long-sleeved shirt to avoid questions. Tala on the other hand was dressed in jeans and t-shirt, and his hair was fixed in a tiny ponytail to keep the hair from falling in his face.

"Yes," Tala clicked his pen and glanced at the papers before him. "Breakfast is on the table," he rested his head in his palm and looked it all over again. He had to start simple, ease Kai in on the problem and make him agree. "I talked with the landlord," he started when Kai sat down and ate his cereal.

"Hm?" Tala looked up and straightened himself out. Kai was a man of few words before he ate breakfast. Even Bryan couldn't stand how easy he was to annoy in the mornings before but it had gotten a lot better since he quit his job. This brought on an early midlife crisis however that Kai refused to admit he had.

"They'll fix it of course, and take a look in the kitchen, so I was thinking while they're doing that we might as well bring someone to renovate both the kitchen and the bathroom. Which of course means we can't live here. You're still with me?" He made sure because Kai seemed to look through him.

"Where will I go?" The poor, confused, and now homeless man asked. "You have friends here but I…" Tala stretched him a paper. "What's this?" Kai skimmed it through. Graveson? Mariah? Australia?

"As you know I met Mariah when I studied in France. She owns a house there in a small town called Graveson and she's leaving for about a year to go on a world around trip with a friend. She offered you a room there for as long as you need," Tala explained slowly so Kai wouldn't miss any important information in his sleepy state.

"But..?" Kai asked, he knew there was a but. Graveson in France? How was he supposed to live in France? He didn't know the language. What about the money?

"But…" Tala clicked his pen again. "There will be a second person there, a house guard. He'll stay there for the entire year she's gone. I mentioned your dislike for strangers and she said that if she could she'd tell him to arrive at the house after you move back here but she has animals and doesn't want to put that responsibility on you," Tala added before Kai said anything. Silence filled the room as Kai thought this through.

"Animals?" He questioned. That could be anything from horses to raccoons. She was a veterinary so who knew what strange animals she brought home?

"Cats and a dog," Tala pointed at the paper. It said 'Hope', underlined, and 'old dog'. "You do like the countryside," he smiled smugly and Kai sighed. "I'm sorry, if there was another option I'd go with it but I can't afford hotel rooms for us both with the renovation. If you feel like you don't want to I'll just keep myself from renovating the k-"

"Don't say that, I know you wouldn't kick me out," Kai smiled and looked down on the paper. "I agree with you. Renovating everything at once would save us from having to live with builders invading our home while we're here," he thought a bit out loud and Tala nodded. There was a long silence while Kai merely stared at the paper. Tala realized Kai wouldn't make the decision by himself.

"Should I call her and tell her you're on?" He asked to be sure. Kai nodded slowly, still a bit unsure. He and Tala had known each other for years and he knew Tala's habits in the morning and vice versa so they wouldn't be in the way of one another. How would this stranger be? If it turned out to be a yelling match every morning he knew who had to go.

Kai was left with his thoughts as Tala left the room to talk with Mariah. He had a bad feeling about this but he didn't want to be a burden to Tala, he knew how long the red-head had wanted to renovate the apartment. He'd go to France, for Tala.

About a week later when Kai got into the cab he regretted his decision. The cab to the airport in London that would be. Apparently the cab driver had visited France and kept going on and on about how rude the French were. They couldn't do anything right, had a weird language, and weren't polite to customers. Kai was just happy he'd get to drive on the right side of the damn road when he got there.

French food was apparently disgusting and everything was expensive. Kai wondered which part of France this driver had been to but didn't ask. He didn't want the man to think he was interested in his judgmental view on the rest of the world. He also pointed out that Kai seemed to be wearing an awfully lot of clothes for it being the middle of May and Kai decided that this man was a nuisance to the world and needed better manners than to point out people's clothes.

Once they reached the airport Kai hurried out and explained politely that he needed to help with the baggage. He wanted to spend no more time with this man than he had to.

More and more Kai wished for this ordeal to be done with. The plane was late and there was a child seated near him that kept yelling. Headphones didn't help much because his music was on his phone which had little to no batteries left so he had to turn it off. France was bad omen and the flight couldn't be any worse.

When the flight attendant arrived with the lunch it reminded him that yes, it could always get worse. Always. Smashed potato and some form of meat that had been frozen a second ago no doubt presented itself under the plast. He just ate the bread and bought candy to keep his stomach satisfied.
He missed his private jet. He missed a lot of stuff from his old life. He didn't miss his job tho. The constant decisions on who to fire and the applications and the math and just yuck. He didn't need his private jet, he simply had to plan his next flight better. Positive thinking like Tala always said, plan ahead to make bad situations less bad. Damned psychologist and his logic thinking. This whole mess was his fault.

So, the whole flight was a mess. The whole situations was a mess, Kai thought as he stepped out on the parking lot. The sun stood high on the sky and blinded him. He raised a hand to shield his eyes and looked around. Tala told him there would be a ride waiting for him so he looked for a cab. He wasn't sure how they looked but they probably had a flashing sign that said 'Taxi'.

"Kai!" He turned around and saw a person next to a black truck stretching his hand up in the air to call his attention. Kai assumed that was his ride, who else would know his name in France? He grabbed his bags and headed over, trying his best not to get run over on the way. When he reached the car and finally got a good look at the person he thought the man looked familiar.

He wore dark washed out jeans and a white tank top that showed his tanned arms. Around his neck hang one of those military necklace but it looked like the real deal, and he wore black combat boots.

"Here," the man walked past him and unlocked the trunk. That's when Kai saw the man had black hair tied in a loose ponytail with a black band. "You planning to hold on to your suitcases in the passenger seat?" Kai was forced out of his shook and walked over, apparently too slowly because Rei grabbed his suitcases and put them in the trunk of the car. At least he thought it was Rei, it was hard to tell with the sunglasses.

"Thanks," was all Kai could muster up. The man flashed a smile at him and closed the trunk. There wasn't a mistake was there, it was Rei, it had to be. If he would just remove those damn sunglasses, Kai thought and opened the door to the passenger seat. Maybe he was wrong. There were other people in the world than Rei who had long black hair. His accent didn't match either. It sounded English.

"You ate on the plane?" Kai stared at him, Rei or not he sure didn't know how to introduce himself. "'Cause I'm hungry but I can eat at home if you don't want to stop on the way," the man started the engine. The AC worked to make sure the car didn't burn up and drowned out the music. That's when a scent filled the trunk, only that it wasn't the scent Kai associated with Rei. It was raspberry and not vanilla. Then, finally, the man removed his glasses to check his phone. That's when Kai saw the amber eyes that still haunted his dreams.

"I ate on the plane," he answered, not having the need to explain how nauseous this encounter made him. "I'm tired so I'd appreciate if you drive to the house," he explained as politely as he could. Polite was all he could muster in this situation. He wanted to scream at Tala for not telling him who the stranger would be. Why was Rei prepared but not he? Why didn't Rei care?

"Sure," Rei raised an eyebrow but Kai wasn't sure if it was at him or the phone. Kai wondered if he could go back to the airport and take a flight back to London but by then Rei had already pulled out from the parking lot.

Yes Kai, your life sucks because you don't have a private jet. Oh I have missed these guys so much. Thanks for reading and please don't forget to review your thoughts on this :d