Wine, Cigarettes and Conversation

Chapter One: Initiator Silence

Glaring intensely at one particularly offensive crack in the ceiling Kai Hiwatari leaned his head back and sighed.

'2…3 years was it…?'

The question remained unanswered and he fumbled his pocket. Retrieving a lighter and a tin he sat forward and flicked it open fingers outlining the shape of the metal. He sighed again taking a thin paper and rolling himself a cigarette just to occupy his time for a few minutes so that his mind wouldn't follow the direction of that topic…

It had been 3 years since Kai had officially retired from blading. The practice hadn't thrilled him anymore with no one worthy of his talent-well only one, and they were living miles away in Japan somewhere…His former team mates had dispersed back to their own countries, their own towns, their old lives seeing their old friends again.

And he had no where to go to.

Kai exhaled grey dancing smoke from parted lips, smirking at his own self pity. He had his own apartment now, he voluntarily moved far away from his grandfather as soon as he possibly could. He went back to studying art and law. He never even knew he had an interest in art, until late at night sometimes he would roll his sleeves, take another cigarette and paint. The smoke sometimes inspired him, the way it curled. Kai figured law was an interest he had acquired from Takao, the way he applied justice to everything and stood for what was right even if it did make him look an idiot for saying it.

He frowned at Takao's name. He wasn't meant to go down that road of thought, Kai would've poured himself a glass of wine but he drank that the other night. He wasn't a heavy drinker; he drank but never enough him to ever acquire a problem with drink. And anyway it was mostly when he was bored and restless and it was mostly wine. Kai had taken furiously to wine, never finding out the reason why as with smoking. He had come to the conclusion that it was boredom-another thing to occupy himself with, maybe they were bad habits, but pleasurable ones and he planned on keeping them.

At college he never really felt the need to mix with the other students, he didn't see the need. He had had friends once but now they were scattered across the globe alive? Dead? Married? Who knows? Max could be the ruler of the earth for all he knew. /That's a scary thought the guy puts mayonnaise on everything/ He hated current affairs despite his interest in law he would always switch the channel when the news came on. He never understood why. A lot of things Kai did nowadays he did without really understanding them. He would think about his old team a lot but most of all Takao. And that he really didn't understand, or maybe he did? He was just afraid of the answer.

Growling rather nonchalantly; like he always did-Kai stumped out the cigarette and got on his feet and yawned. Didn't have that paper on the death penalty to start? Kai frowned, that would take him weeks…

-

Takao threw down his keys on the kitchen table, brought out a chair and slumped into it lazily. His head leaning on the edge of a dinner mat and he sighed heavily. It had been a late night, he had been asked to cover one of the night classes at his local college. Takao had just returned from his night training job of teaching Japanese linguistics to potential graduate students. Still being a student himself he was often asked to cover classes as training experience for his future profession. However today he was asked by his professor to cover his night class (he hadn't told him the reasons why neither did Takao bother to ask) explaining that it was urgent business and Takao was the last person he could turn to. Takao that evening had reluctantly agreed. So now, he sat there exhausted after attempting to teach unruly post-grads the differences between 'ka' and 'ga'. Takao wondered for awhile how another person would have coped with the situation…rather than throwing a board marker and one of his students (she wasn't taking him seriously as her teacher was so close to her own age). He wondered how Kai might have dealt with it all of a sudden but was quickly jaded by will and the need for sleep. He would've gotten up to make a coffee but he was far too tired, maybe he would just sleep in the kitchen tonight or risk an attempt at climbing the stairs as long as he doesn't sleep on them first…

Sun peaked through the still open blinds illuminating the kitchen and the slumped mass on the kitchen table. Takao stirred lazily comprehending his location and remembering literally passing out in the most convenient of places. He groaned and rubbed his eyes not wanting to pass his eyes of the kitchen's clock; he would fill himself with caffeine first so he would be capable of the energy to react accordingly to the time. Either too late, or too early, 'oh that would be fun…' he thought 'waking up early for once when I actually need to the sleep…'

Listening to his clicking limbs he began pondering around the same thoughts he had last night. He hadn't really kept in touch with any of his old team mates apart from Haomi and Kyouju he would see Max occasionally but hadn't seen Kai or Rei in years. He wasn't even aware of what they were doing now either. Thinking that Rei would have probably gone back to Hong-Kong and fill in his old waiter job in a district restaurant. Max had gone into business and worked with his father and Kyouju and Haomi studied together in a college a little out of town and were still thoroughly connected to the Beyblading world. Haomi would present and commentate on current beyblading events and Kyouju would still engineer them. He also dabbled in other engineering areas but he thoroughly enjoyed beyblades still since they were his expertise. They also had planned on living together recently deciding now that they were partners after seeing eachother for few months. Takao wasn't really shocked with that result; after all they were the ones who interacted with eachother the most when the team was still dormant. He also wasn't shocked at the fact no one had been able to keep in touch with Kai at all, no one ever could. Only Takao had thought of keeping his number from years ago but he wasn't sure if it was old or not or if Kai would even want to keep in touch with him.

Sighing he walked over to the coffee pot and boiled it. He would get dressed later and then decide what he needed to do. For now he would allow his thoughts to travel over why he had a sudden interest in what Kai might be doing…

-

Kai groaned. He had slept on his work again. Why he wasn't capable of getting up to go to bed sometimes he didn't know, but that was irrelevant now, he had to figure out how to get rid of the keyboard marks imbedded in one of his cheeks. If that wasn't satisfying enough his hair had managed to go askew and his pen had leaked onto his shirt. Inky blue blots covered around his navel looking as though he'd been bleeding blue blood. How he managed to sleep for that long in such an awkward position Kai wasn't prepared to ask himself. Deciding now was a good time to go for a shower he threw off his white shirt (it had to be white didn't it?) and glared at the speckles on his lean stomach. Sighing, he took up a towel and headed towards the bathroom.

The shower was soothing, getting rid of the twinges and cramps that Kai didn't even know he had. Lazily he washed off the blue specks and lathered his hair wishing silently that he had enough time for a coffee and a cigarette before he left for college.

Half dressed in his own kitchen; Kai leaned back in a chair and lit a roll. He took one large breathe and puffed the curling smoke into the air. He gotten a little lazier over the years, which wasn't a bad thing, it made him feel a little more relaxed and less paranoid most of the time. However, he still suspected that the mail man liked posting to the wrong address on purpose and that people would talk behind his back when he was at a counter buying tobacco, other than that he couldn't give a shit to being a little late for his afternoon lecture, he might not even go at all…

'What?...' Takao nearly died.

'You're free today, all the placements are taken up by your group, you could supervise if you really want but Mr Takanka has no real use for you right now…'

'Ugh, Okay…'

Takao strolled out slightly confused. That had never happened before…none of the tutors were off sick and he had no classes. Takao grinned he had the day to do nothing. He stretched thinking it would be nice to wander around town for awhile, something he hadn't done in a long time due to studying and having to go over papers.

Takao came by a coffee shop, it looked new and he didn't remember seeing it before. He shrugged it off; it must have really been a long time since he'd done this. Ordering a mocha he sat by the window in the light and decided it was an opportunity to go through his mobile messages. Takao wasn't really into texting, and he rarely used his phone, it was mainly for work and he had acquired a handsome amount of received messages over the months…whilst deleting them all he came across Kai's number…out of curiosity he decided to try and phone it…he had nothing to loose right?

Kai groaned. Somewhere in his apartment he heard his phone ringing. Climbing out of the chair looking like it had seemed a great effort he paced around to his room where his slick black mobile buzzed on the counter draws.

'Hello?' he drawled taking another breathe of cigarette and listened to the hesitant voice on the other end of the phone.

'Hi, Kai?...'

'Takao? What the hell do you want?' out of all of his old team-mates he suspected Takao would end up being the first one he'd talk to after all these years.

'Oi! That's no way to speak to an old friend! I'm allowed to talk to you some time!'

'That may be…why do you still have my number?'

'Who cares? What have you been doing with yourself Kai, it's been what…two years?'

'Three…and it's none of your business what I'm doing now…'

Takao rolled his eyes 'Typical Kai…that's just your way of saying I don't want you to know what I'm doing now…what is it you a hooker now or something?' Takao giggled and was shot dirt looks from a woman on the opposite table.

'Fine…I'm back in college now, but I'm only telling you to keep you quiet, what is Kinomiya doing then, still picking fights?'

'Hardly, I teach linguistics at Ishakano!' He said triumphantly 'well part time apprenticeship…but still, ha!'

'Ishakano? You're still in the same area…?'

'Yeah why? Where are you now?'

'Nagoya…'

'Wait, I haven't seen you in 2 years and you only live 200 or so miles away…I would have thought you'd have gone back to Moscow!…'

'Nah, I can't stand that place…'

'Hey…'

'What?'

'How long's it take for you to get to Tokyo?'