"Are you actually stupid, or do you just try to act it?"
The sound of a familiar, cold voice cut through his all ready troubled thoughts, causing him to start and whirl around to confront the speaker. He froze in his place, all of his angry retorts dying on his tongue as his yellow gaze met an even colder glare, the crimson gaze lacking all of the warmth usually held by such a passionate colour. However, upon closer inspection, those eyes did hold some warmth beneath the layer ice, burning with the ferocity of an inferno, betraying his barely disguised fury.
"At any rate, you should try going into acting. You'd obviously be better at it then Beyblading, but then, I'd imagine that that would be the case with most things you do," the owner of that garnet glare spoke up again, sneering at him and causing his own anger to flare up in response.
"Do you have a point Kai, or are you just here to satisfy your pathetic need to assure yourself that you're better then everyone else," he bit back, watching with satisfaction as Kai's eyes widened a fraction, before his newfound confidence took a nosedive when they narrowed even more so then before, until they were mere slits as Kai twitched slightly, obviously trying to keep his anger in check. He backed up a little, baring his fangs when the Russian's fist's clenched at his sides, preparing to dodge the fist he was sure was about to slam into him.
To his surprise, Kai's shoulders suddenly sagged; the ex-captain visibly calmed himself, looking up with a slight smirk on his lips. The Chinese blader shivered when he noticed that blood- red gaze, fixed firmly upon him was even darker then before, making the boy look positively sadistic.
"Big words, coming from an idiot. I'm surprised that you could come up with something like that. Your team captain must be having a good effect on you, however, in answer to your questions- both of them- I do indeed have a point, and secondly, I don't need to assure myself; I all ready know," He snorted at the arrogance of the phoenix blader and glared back at him, feeling his eyes slit in the process.
"If you have a point Kai, kindly get to it. Your very presence is pissing me off, and I have better ways to spend my time then standing out here with you," He retorted, displeased when Kai's smirk faded and his mouth twisted into a scowl. The Russian looked almost bored.
"Trust me, the feeling is very much mutual," he replied blandly, flicking imaginary dust off his scarf before fixing his gaze back onto the neko-jin, "and there you have answered your own question," the paler youth ignored the confused look on the others face and stepped closer, his face taking on a faint look of disgust, "my point is my friend, is that one of the ways you could spend your time in better ways, could be to train, or perhaps listen to your captain occasionally, since you're so obviously clueless. Face it, you're pathetic," he spat, looming over the cat- like young man in an act of intimidation. The anger within him finally died, his eyes returning to normal and sliding to gaze at the floor. He tried to ignore the sharp stab of guilt and sadness that clutched at his heart.
"I'm- I'm not!" he argued back, sounding wholly disbelieving himself, Kai let out a short mocking laugh.
"Yes, you are. You're a wasted talent. You could be good if you used your head, but no, you insist on being stubborn. You insist on totally loosing your head and rushing into attacks. You insist on loosing. You insist on letting down your team every damned battle, and though I wouldn't usually give a damn about you and your team, what I do care about, and what makes me angry, is that you insist on shaming a blader who's far too good to deserve being shamed by an amateurish blader like yourself. You shame your captain; Rei. Every damned battle." Kai paused in his speech to back up a little, his voice lowering to a hiss. "Every time you ignore his good advice and let him down, you're throwing his friendship right back in his face. It's no secret Lai that without you, Rei and the Bai Fu Zu would have won all three of their matches. Without you Lai, they could have won, but with you, they've thrown it all away. The way that Rei saved you in that battle yesterday is evidence enough of that." Lai stared back, ashamedly holding back tears as he continued to stare at the ground.
"So you came here just to kick me when I'm down? To preach what I all ready know?" He said quietly, his voice heavy and laden with bitterness. Distantly, he heard Kai sigh.
"I'm not that desperate for entertainment," he snorted, before moving to lean against the wall, "I'm just doing my job, and defending Rei's honour is one of the tasks that comes with it," he explained coolly. Lai looked up, meeting the still angry, but slightly softened glare.
"You're not his captain anymore," he stated. Kai smiled slightly in response, a brief twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"Ah, yes, but this is a different kind of job, a more important one," Kai shrugged, glancing at the sniffling blader casually, "look. You're getting Rei down. He's torn between his need to be a leader and his need to be a friend, and he, obviously being a nicer person then I am, is still leaning towards friendship. I want you to honour that. I want you to grow up and get over this pathetic need to prove yourself. I want you to honour the belief that Rei obviously has in you, because, to put it bluntly, you're offending him. Neither of you realise it, but this faith and confidence that Rei pours into you, he need's honoured. Yet you just take it all and never come through for him. In that way, you are offending him, and when you offend him, you offend me. Do you understand me?" He questioned, the authority he had about him, clear in his voice. The Lion nodded, gulping slightly and feeling even worse then before when he realised all of what Kai had said was true. Kai nodded slightly in response, "Good. Sort it out. Listen to what Rei has to say, and for God's sake, don't loose your head so easily. Concentrate on what you're doing, and if you're in doubt, just give it your best shot for Rei. Make him proud that you're his partner, but then, he has had to lower his standards from last year," Kai smirked, almost good- naturedly, before turning to walk away.
"Don't flatter yourself so much," Lai shot back, feeling a little more light hearted. Kai turned around and shrugged.
"Once you've had Kai, it's hard to turn back," he answered, though his lighter tone indicated that he too, was in a somewhat better mood.
"Hey Lai what're—Kai?" A soft voice interrupted their banter, causing both to turn their attention to the raven- haired lad at the door.
"Hey," Kai said smoothly. Rei blinked and frowned slightly at the sight of Kai and Lai hanging out in the hallway together, especially given their uneasy past with one another.
"Hey yourself. Lai, Mao's asking after you, she's made you another salad, so hurry up before she goes homicidal on you," he announced, leaning casually against the door frame. Lai nodded and made a dash for the door, pausing to look back at the boy, who, only a few minutes ago looked ready to batter him into a bloody pulp.
"Hey, thanks Kai," he nodded and sent him a small smile before disappearing through the open door. Rei's frown deepened, as he stared at Kai.
"What was all that about?" he questioned, padding up to his fellow team- captain. Kai shrugged, giving him the smallest of grins,
"We just had a little chat is all," Rei looked unsure, but nodded nonetheless, trusting his ex-team mate's word, "how about we go for a little walk? The two of us, just like in the 'good old days'?" Kai asked lightly, jokingly referring back to their time together as half of the BBA Revolution. Rei blushed a little and nodded.
"Sure, but not too much like the 'good old day's' eh? Else we'll never get any walking done." Rei joked. Kai's grinned widened as they walked together down the corridor, their destination, at that point, unknown to either. They were just satisfied with the company.