Title: The Roof To

Rating: G

Notes: This could be taken as a yaoi or just a simple friendship fic.

Summary: Kenny was just outside when the captain of the Demolition Boy's appeared and made him rather nervious.

One of the shortest members of G Revolution watched the sunset from on top of the hotel roof, trying to clear his thoughts. He was still reeling from the bey battle he had with Tala so many hours ago. He just couldn't understand why Hiro had benched Tyson and put him up to face…

Tala is the superior blader, it was so obvious that I didn't stand a chance against him, I couldn't stand against him! Maybe I did catch him off guard, but that was nothing. I am just a bug that he needed to squash. He closed his eyes and sighed, trying to relaxing, but he was unable to do so; I never want to go through that again.

He tried to remove the memories of the match from his mind, how fiery Tala's eyes became when in the heat of battle, when Kenny had made that speech about Tyson returning to support him in this match.

Why was he surprised? Surely he knew that myself and Tyson were best friends? He wondered and then became thoughtful; Of course, maybe life in the abbey tainted things for them, does Tala really know what having a friend is about? Maybe that was why he was off guard when I said that, when I actually gained some guts and fought back. He noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a tall shadow walking towards him.

"Hello?" He said wearily, wondering where he could run to if there was danger.

"I was hoping that no one would be up here," An all too familiar voice said, Kenny felt a shiver run up his back as the red haired teen walked towards him and leaned on the railing; "It was an interesting battle," He looked down at the shorter teen who was now shivering uncontrollable; I thought it was nerves down there, is he actually scared of me?

"I… I guess so," Kenny said, not knowing which match he meant, but figured it must have been the one against Daichi; Forget what I thought about before, I don't have the guts to talk to him any more… Heat of the battle just made me act rashly.

Tala raised an eyebrow; "What are you scared of?" He asked bluntly.

Kenny looked up at him in surprise; "Who said I was scared?" He then realised who he was talking to and looked back down; "I… I might be cold,"

Tala smirked; "Yea? From what Kai told me, you are meant to be a genius. If that was true you would be inside by now,"

"I…" Kenny looked back up at him, seeing the teasing humour in those azure eyes and realised that Tala wasn't out to get him, was trying to start a fight, nothing of the sort; "I was enjoying the view,"

At that the older teen nodded, but still the smirk remained, the boy had no idea how to taunt back, hadn't even been aware that he had just been teasing him to begin with.

"Why aren't you blading as well?" He finally asked after a few moments silence.

"What…?" Kenny looked back up at him; "I can't… I don't…" He began but had no idea how to finish the sentence.

Tala once again smirked at him; "Any time you want to finish the sentence kid,"

Kenny recollected his thoughts and finally spoke; "I don't blade because I'm not very good…"

"Don't insult me," Tala snapped back, the humour completely gone from his eyes, and Kenny would have felt the fear creeping back up his skin, prickling along his spine, had Tala not said those words; "My skills are good…"

"They are brilliant!" Kenny chirped and the older teen was taken back at how quickly the shorter boy brought out his laptop and showed him his stats; "I mean you're one weakness is that attack you used…"

"The one you told Daichi about," Tala said drily and Kenny nodded, laughing nervously.

"Eh, yea…"

"I know it needs improving," He admitted; "But it does the job just fine, you were the first one to figure out the obvious weakness,"

"You just scare people," Kenny said, thinking he had said it in his head.

"Yea, of course I do," Tala scoffed and Kenny realised what he had actually said.

"No, no, that's not what I meant…" He tried to take it back, then noticed that Tala was laughing; "Wha…?"

"You are something else kid," He said with a smile, a genuine smile not a smirk, and in his direction; "I know people find me intimidating, everyone remembers what I did three years ago…" He trailed off, the sun had set and now the stars were out to play, his azure eyes focused on them.

"Tala, it wasn't your fault…"

"Maybe, but I had a part to play. I am still guilty of it," Tala told him but his gaze never left the sky above.

"I know that, but… But people forgive. Yes you took people's bit beasts, but they all returned, if people could forgive Kai, then why not you too?"

Tala now looked at him, his eyes narrowed in suspicion; "Kai wasn't ready to return to the abbey, he had forgotten too much,"

"That was a good thing, he came to his senses in the end," Kenny stated; "Boris was the one pulling the strings, you all had a reason to remain there,"

"Yea, yea we did," Tala said softly, looking away from Kenny, his gaze softening.

"Tala, I know that…" Kenny trailed off and the older teen just looked at him.

"Wanna finish the sentence kid?"

He blushed and continued; "I… I would like to be your friend,"

Tala paused for a moment, thinking it over what the boy had said; Is this a trick? No, couldn't be, his emotions are too far open to be some trick… But what does he hope to gain with me as his friend?

"What's in it for you then?"

Kenny blinked in surprise at the strange question; "There is only friendship, that's all," He is damaged, like Kai, but unlike Kai I don't know him that well; "You're team mates are your friend's right?"

Tala thought over that, not sure; of course he and Bryan met before they entered the abbey and he still thought of Bryan as the same boy who helped him survive, but were they friends after everything they had gone through? Were he and Kai friends?

"The fact you have to think about it, I guess is a no," Kenny said softly; "I'm not trying to trick you,"

Tala narrowed his eyes at him; "I'd hope not,"

"… But a friend, they are someone you can talk to, pretty much about anything, even if the subject would bore them to tears," Kenny remembered a time when Tyson talked to him about something that he really didn't care about; "A friend will listen, but it's about a right balance, they can come to you about problems too,"

"So… talking?"

"Pretty much what we are doing now, hanging out and talking," Kenny said with a slight nod, wondering if he understood.

"That…" Tala paused for a moment; "That would be nice,"

"Really?" Kenny said in surprise and Tala smirked at him again.

"Really," He knelt down to look at the laptop and his stats; "All right kid, what can you help me with?"

Kenny was surprised at how easy it had been; Maybe you just need to treat him carefully, he needs a bit more TLC than say Tyson or Daichi do, because he doesn't have anyone, but he never knew it. Kennty explained what was wrong with his attack and how he could improve it, as well as pointing out problems with his blade.

Soon enough Kenny was shivering out of actual cold and Tala pick him up and carried him inside, despite the protests of the younger teen, carrying him back to his room, he was greeted by the girl, although he didn't know her name.

"Hey watch are you doing?" She demanded to know as he put Kenny down.

"Just making sure the kid got back okay," Tala informed her before leaving; "Thanks Kenny," He walked away and made his way to his team's room.

Hilary just looked at him and then at Kenny; "Right, so what happened?"

Kenny just shook his head; "Nothing, I was just outside watching the sunset, I guess I should have paid more attention to the time, I got really cold and thankfully Tala came up and helped bring me back here,"

He should have felt bad about lying, he didn't have anything to hide, but if word got back to Daichi that he was friends would Tala, well there would be hell on earth. Tyson wouldn't really care and Hilary probably wouldn't mind either, but he had to be careful, he didn't want to make the fragile team fall apart.

"Your team is well put together," He had commented to Tala before the cold had really kicked in.

"To be expected, we did all live in the abbey for a time. Your team looks like it's never dull though, Tala stated, but Kenny shook his head.

"You have Kai, it's never going to be dull now,"

"Maybe we should head in, you are shivering badly,"

"Yea…" Kenny agreed, but he found that he couldn't get his legs to move; "Um.."

Without the question needing to be asked, Tala picked him up and carried him in; "What room are you staying in?"

Kenny told him and they headed to that floor, on the way he made sure that they exchanged email addresses, since they wouldn't be able to talk all the time; "Besides it's easier to write things down than to say it out loud,"

Tala only nodded, but never gave any notice that he remembered Kenny's email. So the short teen had no idea if the red head actually remember or had his mind on other things.

Guess I'll need to wait and see. He thought, as Hilary brought out some blankets and piled them on top of him; once she left to get some warm milk, he put on his laptop to check over something's when he noticed a familiar email address;

That was quick!