The rain poured rather violently and showed no sign of letting up as the two young men sought refuge under a canopy in front of a small café. Luckily for them, it had still been open. Light streaked across the darkness in small strands through blinds from inside and illuminated their faces as they stopped in front of the door, happy to be out of the raging downpour.
"They must've gotten lost," Kai spoke up.
The rain almost drowned out his voice, but somehow Aichi was still able to hear him. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he replied. "I wonder where they are? I hope they're okay." He fought to keep his teeth from chattering.
"I'm going to try to call Misaki again," Kai said, whipping out his cell phone and turning toward the café. "Alright, I've got a signal. Wait here and watch for the van. I'll be right back."
Aichi nodded as Kai turned and left. He felt extremely nervous being left alone this late at night, but knew that it would be awkward for him to cling to Kai, so he clung to the older boy's jacket that hung around his body instead. He blushed slightly at Kai's almost tranquilizing scent as he brought the jacket collar closer around his face, still unable to believe that Kai had placed it around his shoulder a few moments earlier. It would just be a quick phone call. No big deal. He'll be right back. He reassured himself. And when that wasn't enough to calm his delicate nerves, he let the jacket go and dug through his pockets until he found his favorite reminder of Kai; Blaster Blade.
Not a minute had passed as Aichi reflected on his first encounter with Kai. Those memories of the time when they had first met always put his fears and anxiety at ease. He closed his eyes, trying to picture the two of them as they were back then, but was distracted as he heard footsteps pounding the wet concrete. They sounded surprisingly close.
Opening his eyes, Aichi was met with two older boys, drenched from the rain.
"Hey, aren't you Sendou Aichi?" The larger of the two immediately questioned.
Aichi was taken aback by the sudden recognition.
"Yup, that's him alright." The shorter boy commented hoarsely from behind, chewing on a cigarette. He kept a straight face as he slowly circled around and sized Aichi up. "I'd know that flimsy haircut anywhere." He flicked Aichi's head with a strong finger.
Aichi clenched his teeth. He had a rude awakening inside of him. He'd been in situations like this before when he was younger and none of them had ever turned out good. He cursed himself for being the weak target that he was.
When the shorter kid stopped behind his friend to release some smoke from his mouth, the older boy continued his questioning.
"Hey, what card you got there?" Aichi twitched and tried to hide the card from the other men's sights. The dim light coming from the café allowed Aichi to see a little of his offenders more clearly. And clearly they were a lot older. This only increased his worries as he clutched Blaster Blade as strong as he could and prayed.
Aichi automatically recoiled as the young man easily cornered him against a wall behind them, taking away his card at the same time in one fell swoop.
"Whoa, check this out!" He whistled as he flashed the card to his friend behind him for a quick glance.
"Nice," was all the shorter man replied with, dropping his cigarette on the concrete before stomping it out.
"I happen to be working on a Royal Paladin deck myself." The taller man said arrogantly. "And all I'm missing is Blaster Blade. Imagine that?"
It was difficult for Aichi not to laugh half-heartedly at the irony of the man's statement, but he kept his thoughts to himself. He felt himself becoming hysterical and flinched as the taller man suddenly got closer, a wicked grin stretched across his face. His friend still showed no sign of emotion.
"Please," Aichi begged. "Don't take that card!"
"Oh c'mon, kid." The man laughed. "It's just a piece of paper." He paused for a moment to smirk at his buddy, clearly getting a kick out of messing with a defenseless middle schooler, before returning his attention to the terrified Aichi. "What else you got?"
"Didn't he use that Soul Saver Dragon in an earlier match?" The shorter man commented, lighting another cigarette. "You like dragons..."
"Oh yeah, can never have too many dragons. Let me see it, kid."
Aichi tried to break free from the man's grip, but found his efforts futile, as the man didn't even budge. He was about to scream when the man's fist tightened around his collar, pressing him up against the wall. Behind him, his friend pulled out a chain.
"Settle down, kid." The man scoffed. He sounded amused that Aichi was even trying at all to fight him off considering their size differences. "We can do this the easy way. Or..."
His friend, cold as a robot, stretched the chain out and straightened it in an audible clank as the rings momentarily collided. Aichi had felt the lash of chains before. And he didn't care to feel it again. Even so...
Blaster Blade was...
"Aichi!" Kai's voice rang out. "Hey! Let him go!"
Aichi gasped as the man finally let go of him and took off down the street. When he dropped to the floor and opened his eyes he saw a dash of brown and white taking off in the same direction.
"Kai-kun!" Aichi yelled, getting to his feet and stopping where the canopy ended. The rain made it difficult to see, making Aichi worry. Those men looked really dangerous. Kai was way more important than any card in his deck. He pulled Kai's jacket closer around him and closed his eyes tightly in frustration. How could he be so weak even now? He was about to take off after Kai when an important figure once again came into view, running toward him.
"Kai-kun!" He yelled again, a large smile running across his face.
Kai slowed down as he got closer to Aichi and came to a stop once they were both under the protection of the canopy once again. The rain began to lighten up around them.
Aichi couldn't take his eyes off of Kai as the brunette bent down slightly, his hair dripping-wet as he fought to catch his breath. He had to make sure he was okay.
"Kai-kun..." He said again, not sure of where he should start. A thank you, maybe? That seemed too simple. An apology for even getting into trouble in the first place?
Before Aichi could bring himself to say anything more, Kai took in a deep breath and straightened himself up. A moment later, he revealed Aichi's Blaster Blade out from one of his pant pockets. Instead of returning it however, he stared at it, looking rather melancholy.
"Maybe," Kai mused, looking down at Aichi's pride and joy. "I made a mistake giving this to you."
Aichi felt his heart drop at that comment.
"It never crossed my mind that it might give you even more trouble than you already had." Kai sighed, closing his eyes. "Come to think of it, the reason we even met again was because Morikawa took this card from you and bet it on a fight we had, right?" He looked unflinchingly at Aichi for confirmation.
Aichi could only nod and look down, feeling suddenly saddened by his friend's words.
"How many times has this card caused trouble for you since I gave it to you?" Kai flipped the card around so that Aichi was able to see it as well.
Aichi lifted his eyes, gaping at Kai's sudden show of empathy. His eyes met Kai's instead of the card. He could tell Kai really wanted an honest answer. But the number of fights he'd lost defending that card were too numerous to count. He was honestly lucky he was still in possession of it after all this time. And still lucky, apparently.
After a moment of silence, they both winced and shielded their eyes as two bright headlights sent a ray of light in their direction. Shin had finally showed up.
"Here," Kai said nonchalantly as he quickly handed the card back to Aichi and made his way toward the van.
"Kai-kun! Wait-" Aichi stopped for a moment and quickly put Blaster Blade inside his pocket and without thinking, reached out and grabbed a hold of Kai's drenched shirt. He had almost placed his hand in one of Kai's pockets. Instinctively, he held onto it as hard as he had ever held onto anything in his entire life. What the hell am I doing? He thought, completely flustered.
Kai froze for a moment before turning to look at Aichi, completely puzzled.
"I-I...I just wanted...to say..." Aichi stumbled over his words. Why was it so hard for him to speak all of the sudden? His heart raced as he looked on in awe and sent Kai into an even bigger state of confusion.
What the heck is he looking at? Kai thought. He thought he would be used to Aichi's looks by now, but this one seemed different somehow than all the others.
Unbeknownst to Kai, and perfectly obvious to Aichi, the car lights behind them had illuminated Kai's back, giving him a soft sort of glow. It was a truly beautiful sight as his white shirt, slightly wet from the rain, seemed to capture the light in its folds. But the light around his body was so brilliant that even in their close proximity, Aichi couldn't make out Kai's expression.
Aichi stood there stunned for a moment. He wasn't seeing things again, was he? A nudge of Kai's arm quickly snapped him back to reality. Timidly, he apologized, letting go of Kai and removing his jacket, lifting it up to him in an attempt to return it.
"Thank you, Kai-kun." He finally said, barely audible at this point.
Kai gently placed a hand on his jacket and pushed it back towards Aichi. "You hold onto it. You're still cold, right?" Kai smirked playfully at Aichi as he turned back toward the van, causing the car lights to illuminate his face. Aichi tried to hide his blush by putting Kai's jacket back on and burying his face in it once their eyes met one last time before they boarded the van.
"Are you two alright?" Misaki asked as the two boarded the van. As usual, she was seated to the left of Shin, playing the navigator. "I'm sorry we were late. We broke down again on our way back to pick you up and had to wait for a tow truck."
The two nodded at Misaki as they took their respected seats.
"This is the last time we split up for lunch! Next time, we're all eating at the same place, got it?" Shin lectured as they put their seatbelts on. Even when he was serious, he maintained a friendly tone to his voice.
"Where did you guys go, nii-san?" Kamui asked, seemingly worried. "We spent hours looking everywhere for you! And we couldn't get a hold of Kai's cell phone! Poor Emi-san was...was..." Kamui choked on his words and could no longer talk as his emotions got the better of him as usual.
This familiar atmosphere of his Q4 comrades had Aichi smiling, feeling so thankful to have such great friends.
"I'm sorry to worry all of you," Aichi apologized. And he really meant that.
"Well, alls well that ends well. Right, Misaki?" Shin beamed as he started the van.
Misaki ignored his comment and instead turned back around and pulled out the map she had been using all evening.
As they left the café, both Kai and Aichi stared out the window at the spot where they had been standing a few moments earlier.
Once they were back on the highway, Kamui and Misaki had fallen asleep and the van was completely silent except for the gentle sound of rain hitting their moving vehicle.
Aichi readjusted himself and pulled Blaster Blade out from within his pocket. He hadn't had a chance to really look at it since it was taken from him.
He got a different feeling from looking at it now, but he couldn't identify what that feeling was. For a moment, he was sure he felt Kai looking down at Blaster Blade as well and he smiled.
If it hadn't been for Kai-kun, he thought, you would have been...
Aichi immediately lost his train of thought as a familiar hand blocked his view of Blaster Blade, encasing its frame around his. His eyes widened as he forgot to breath for a moment.
Was this real? He wasn't sure. The entire night had felt like a dream.
There was only one sure way to tell. He slowly lifted his head to meet eyes with Kai, but to his surprise, Kai's eyes were closed. He looked like he had drifted off to sleep as well, leaning his head against his hand, which rested against the doorframe.
So soon? He thought. Then again, he couldn't really blame him. They had had a really long day.
Aichi looked back down at the hand covering his. He was so sure that Kai's hand had purposely squeezed his own. Was that just a reflex? His imagination had been playing tricks on him lately.
Aichi gave up and simply smiled at the small gesture of affection. Whatever caused it; whatever it meant, this moment made him happy. Carefully lifting their hands onto his lap where Kai's jacket rested so that they would be more comfortable, and being careful not to disturb the sleeping Kai, Aichi leaned against him and slowly closed his tired eyes. He smelled the scent of rain as well as Kai's own relaxing scent and was surprised at how warm Kai was even after being in the cold and rain for as long as they were. He couldn't help but inch closer and nudge his face against the soothing warmth as he felt Kai's shoulder relax against his.
Shin glanced into the rear view mirror and smiled.