Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Beyblade. I do however own Amber and how this plot plays out.
Brothers in Arms
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By: Zadien
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"They're coming."
Amber wasn't quite sure what that ominous phrase was referring to or who but she figured that Kai would explain it all... once he stopped suffocating himself with her pillow. She'd need to clean that pillow once he was finished. There was no way she was going to sleep on his drool. Still, despite the curiosity nagging at her, she diverted her attention to the music video playing on screen and allowed herself to get lost in the images and music.
"What's that?"
She held up a hand to shush him and pumped up the volume. "Decode." She wasn't being intentionally rude but the song happened to be her favourite one at that moment and she was not having it ruined anymore than it had been by Kai's uncharacteristic bout of dramatics. That probably should have worried her, it didn't. If something was truly bothering Kai, he would have sorted it out, not come over to flop down on her bed.
The last riffs of the song began to pound out and her foot automatically began tapping in time to the bass. The scenes became more dramatic, more angst-like and filled with action. She heard Kai shift behind her and knew he was turning to get a better look at the video just as it petered out and the name came up on the screen. A number two claimed the focal point of the screen and some sort of noise blasted from the speakers which she stopped by muting it.
"That's the video for the film you're taking me to see."
"The one with Vampires?"
"Don't say it in that tone Kai; it's nothing as simple as a vampire movie." She muttered, curling her legs under her body. "So what's up with you?"
Kai blew out a breath and dragged his fingers through his hair. It was spiky like Edwards' she thought with amusement but she wouldn't say that. Kai knew of her 'slight' obsession with Edward and for some reason it bothered him enough that he constantly made sardonic comments every time the name was brought up.
"They're coming."
"Who're are coming and where are they – are we being invaded?"
"No – why do you actually look excited by that idea?"
"Um... because I think it would be cool if weird creatures came to Bakuten."
"Aliens."
"What?"
"You said weird creatures, they're called aliens. Aliens invade."
"So do Imperialists, besides, I don't believe in aliens."
"But you believe in..." Kai simply trailed off. "Never mind."
She pulled herself up onto the bed beside him and lay on her back, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling. When they had been eight, they had placed them on both their ceilings. On hers because she had been afraid of the dark and on his because being scared had been embarrassing for her, so she had forced Kai to join in, so that she wouldn't feel bad. When they had been eight, there hadn't been much she couldn't talk Kai into doing. They had met at the age of three and had been firm friends, just like their parents and growing up next-door had kept them close.
"So," She drawled, "why did your dad want you?"
Kai's face closed down and she sighed wearily. Really, Kai was the epitome of an angsting teenager. He was always emoing about something. "I told you."
"No, you said and I quote, 'they're coming'. They could be anyone."
"Would it make more sense if I said she was coming?"
"She? Oh." Yes, that actually did make more sense. She was Grace Valkov, Kai's father's new girlfriend and that was a mouthful and a half. They had been 'dating' for a total of six months exclusively, including a few overnights that infuriated Kai because it meant staying in his house knowing his father was having sex or wandering over to Amber's house. Usually he did the latter and while that wasn't a problem, - they'd had impromptu sleepovers since they were five – it had to be weird that Kai's father was having more sex than he was.
"Stop thinking whatever you're thinking," Kai warned and she muffled a smirk, turning her face to look at him. It was so weird to think that Kai didn't have regular sex. He was so pretty that girls and some males must have wanted to just jump him on sight but Kai was particular about who he spread his seed with. As far as she could discern, making out was ok for him, but sex was something he had standards about. He had never slept, so far as she knew, with any of the school sluts. He didn't need to and he didn't want the aggravation of STD's. She figured the harlots in her school were riddled with them... then again, there were those who liked sex and were quite good at being safe and clean. It was kind of unfair to lump them all in the same boat-
"OW!" She yelped, rubbing her arm which now throbbed viciously due to Kai's rather nasty habit of pinching her when he felt her thoughts were going off the rails. "You're such a dickhead." She muttered. "I wasn't thinking anything bad. Just that you're very pretty."
Kai gave a long suffering sigh, the kind he'd started giving shortly after he'd met her. "Did you hear what I said? She's coming and she's bringing her children."
"Children? Plural?" Ugh, she did not like that idea. She and Kai were only children and despite the fact that they'd pretty much grown up together, they were still only children. The idea of siblings was so chaotic. It brought to mind noise, fighting and a severe lack of privacy. If there was something she and Kai shared, it was a need for privacy... though she often invaded his. He was Kai; she was Amber; that was how they rolled.
"You're doing that nodding thing again, Ember."
She wrinkled her nose at him as she scratched her cheek. Yes, she did have a tendency to nod along with her inner monologues. "Sorry. So children, huh? Does she have many?"
"Three."
"Oh, ouch." Her vagina hurt at the thought.
"Ember!"
"What?"
"I know what you're thinking."
"How?" Was he psychic? Oh that would be so cool. He could be a superhero and she could be his really witty sidekick.
He rolled his eyes. "You looked... you just..." he trailed off awkwardly.
Oh. She had looked sympathetically at her womanhood, she realized and he'd seen the look. "Well? You always touch yourself and look at it."
"Excuse me?"
"Ok, not you exactly but your sex as a whole. I've seen those rappers grope themselves on the TV and... No wait, I've seen you scratch yourself." She accompanied that bold statement by sticking out her tongue.
Kai rolled his eyes. A conversation with Amber was always an experience. It was probably why they were still such good friends. She never bored him as his other friends tended to. "Why have you been looking at my crotch?"
"I've come to the decision that if guys are free to ogle breasts – and don't you dare say anything about mine – then by rights, I, as a female, can look at guys' crotches. Sooner or later, I'm bound to find something of interest... even if I do need a magnifying glass."
"So wait, I can't say anything about your lack of a chest but you can say – "
"There are equal rights and then there are equal rights," She replied, stretching herself along the bed, messing up the covers of her bed spread. "Anyway, we got sidetracked. Where exactly are Grace and her children coming? Here?"
"No."
"... then?"
"He's invited them to the cabin."
"The...oh." Realization sunk in followed by surprise. "Hey wait, our cabin? But...wow, Kai, I guess he's pretty serious."
"Yeah you could say that."
"Six months and he's invited her to the Benson family Christmas. That sounds very serious Kai." They fell into a comfortable silence as they pondered what Nicolai was thinking. A Benson family Christmas was no small matter. All of Amber's relatives would be there and it was the epitome of chaos. Bringing a girlfriend back to meet the parents was one thing, bringing her to meet the whole family was something else completely and the fact that she was bringing her children too... oh, that was just like dumping them in the deep end and hoping they'd swim. Amber always figured that if she brought someone to meet the whole family; she'd be planning to marry him.
Oh.
"Kai?"
"Yeah?"
She leaned into his hand as he trailed it through her hair, a casual touch that soothed them both. "Do you think he loves her?"
"I... don't know. No, he can't."
But he was inviting her to spend Christmas with his adopted family. Nicolai didn't share any love for his father, for the most part they didn't talk, though once a year he and his son would pop into the nursing home to see the old man. Kai would visit a little more frequently since in his old age, Voltaire held no sway over him. So to Nicolai, the Benson's were the equivalent of his family, the same with how Amber's mother thought of the Benson's as family in comparison to her own, who were back in Spain.
"It's a little weird, don't you think? Your first meeting with them will be in front of the entire family."
Kai was quiet for a moment; then replied. "Actually..."
"Actually what?" She demanded, turning onto her stomach so that she could get a better look at him. He really was probably the prettiest guy she knew. Oh he wasn't conventionally pretty and no one would ever accuse him of being a pretty boy, he was too masculine for that but he was certainly handsome. Clean, angular features with a straight nose and slashing eyebrows. His mouth was firm and barely smiled, maybe smirked. His hair was navy with lighter bangs of stone blue bleached by the summer sun. But his eyes were his crowning glory. They were deep mahogany brown, such a rich colour that they sometimes seemed deep red when the light hit them at a certain angle. For a time during her childhood, she had envied his eyes, then realized she was better off since she got to look at them. If her eyes looked like his, she'd have to spend all her time in front of a mirror.
Of course, when you added a rather athletic body that reached six foot one, it was no wonder that Kai was one of the most striking guys in Bakuten high. So she could understand Grace's attraction to Nicolai, since he was just an older version of Kai only with slightly harsher features. Kai's mother's Japanese genes had added a softness to Kai's face that was only visible if you were really looking for it.
Next to Kai, she always felt a bit of a plain Jane. Her only redeeming feature was the colouring she'd inherited from her mother, the golden skin blanched rather than bleached from lack of sun. Eyes that mostly looked golden though on documents she tended to just put Brown. It was a type of brown, just not as nice as Kai's brown eyes. Her black hair always fell rather limply around her face rather than curling like her mother's once had before she chopped it off. Maybe she could cut her hair...
"You still in there Ember?"
She blinked back and smiled sheepishly. "Yup, so you were saying?"
He averted his gaze, something he only did when he was hiding something. She knew that all too well, she did it herself. Sometimes their parents called them peas in a pod... except she preferred to be a different vegetable... or no vegetable at all. She had no problem being in the same pod as Kai though, just as something else, like a flower.
"He wants us to go to dinner with them, sort of an informal get to know you."
"Informal in a restaurant? Yeah I see how easily people will get along dressed in suits... wait a minute –"
"Not a restaurant... he wants to cook. At home."
A snort escaped before she clamped a hand over her mouth. "Oh... so he's cooking for her now? Ouch."
"Yeah."
Oh dear. Kai really didn't seem to like this. To be honest, she didn't really like where things were going either. This was going to lead to upheaval. Kai was going to get siblings and well... what did that mean for her? What if one of his new siblings was really hot? He'd end up drooling over her and they'd have sex and end up in an incestuous-but-not relationship like in those teen movies... ew. And then he'd forget all about her.
"Do you want to sabotage it?"
He shot her a bland disdainful look, the kind only Kai could manage. "I'm not getting involved."
Did he want a hot step sister? "Why not?"
"Because this is his mistake. He needs to see it for himself, and he will."
"What if he doesn't?"
"He's not in love with her."
Pfft. If he wasn't in love with her, he wouldn't be bringing her to meet the entire family but she kept that thought to herself. There was no reason why he'd introduce a woman to everyone in the Benson family unless he was planning to bring her to more family stuff. She hadn't even introduced Mystel to the whole Benson family and he was her boyfriend. Granted he knew most of the Benson family but she hadn't introduced him to Nana Molly yet. That was the big test. If Nana Molly approved, you had to pretty much drag the person up the aisle or she'd marry you herself.
"What if he is?"
"How could he be? He's only known her six months." Kai patiently drawled though it didn't really sound patient at all. It sounded patronizing if she was brutally honest but it was Kai and his attitude always rolled off her like water off a ducks back.
"No they've been dating exclusively for six months, Kai they've known each other for almost a year. Aren't you the least bit worried?"
"About what?"
"I dunno, you might become... the Brady Bunch. I mean seriously, do you want a Marsha and that other guy scenario on your hands? I mean how awkward would it be for you to start crushing on your own sister?"
Kai squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Benson, first of all, she wouldn't be my sister. Second of all, Grace has one daughter as far as I know and she's thirteen."
"She won't be thirteen forever." Amber pointed out logically.
"Benson..." he snapped then trailed off as a wicked smirk curved his lips. "Are you jealous?"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, that's exactly it. I've had a crush on you forever and have barely been able to control the urge to jump you in all your manly sexiness... get real. I'm trying to be serious here. You're obviously not thinking right. Probably too bowled over by the shock that your dad is actually going to cook a four course type of meal."
"...you wound me."
"Why? Because I haven't tripped over my feet in love with you? Pfft, would you really want that? Think of it, I'd moon over you. Do you want me to moon? No. You don't. That would seriously put the kaput on our talking on the bed phase. I wouldn't even be able to sleep in your bed since I'd probably try to rape you. You don't want that."
"True... that's... yeah."
"See, you're as freaked out as I am. Besides, you have plenty of girls at school who drool and daydream about having your babies, so they can boost your ego and I'm here to prick it. Not to mention that I've got Mystel who's really pretty."
"Too pretty." Kai muttered.
"Whatever... Kai, pay attention. Anyway, if the girl is thirteen, what age are the other two?"
"One's our age and the other's fifteen."
"Horrible boy ages."
"Why do you say that?" He asked, as she rolled off the bed to go look out the window, overlooking the seaside village of Bakuten that sprawled out from under the looming hill they lived upon.
"Puberty Kai. I know you don't remember that time since you flew through it in about three months... which maturity wise makes you an old man, but these boys are going to be all about sex and girls and seducing everything in sight. That means I won't be able to come over as often, because I don't want to be seduced."
"What makes them think they'd seduce you?"
Ugh, Kai was clueless. "Because," She stated with exaggerated patience, "Boys always want what they can't have and since I'm in a stable loving relationship with Mystel, they can't have me, ergo they'll want me."
"What deluded world do you live in?"
"Um, this one. Oh you won't get it," she waved him off dismissively; "You're too mature to understand real teenage boys. You might as well admit it; you're an alien possessing Kai's body on an intelligence gathering operation."
"Oh, if I'm an alien – which by the way, you confessed to not believing in fifteen minutes ago –"
"Ugh, hello, diversionary tactics!"
"Then why are you still friends with me?"
"Well obviously," She drawled, shifting in her window seat and smirking up at him, "I got close to you in order to lull you into a false sense of security, so that you would confide your secret to me and I'd be able to alert the world to your scheme, so that I could eventually save the world and elevate my status from trusty sidekick to hero. Naturally, I'd decline this promotion since I actually would prefer to be a trusty sidekick rather than a hero."
Kai seemed to ponder that for a moment, or maybe he was simply trying to process that long stream of communication before he eventually sighed and rested his shoulder against her wardrobe, brown eyes focusing on the view out the window. Not yet Christmas exactly but there was layer of mist that seemed to be forming a curtain over the ocean.
"So does this sidekick have a dress?"
"A dress? Sidekicks don't wear – wait, why? Oh my god you're asking me out on a date. Oh Kai, you're finally hitting puberty. I was wrong, you haven't hit pub–"
"Benson. Shut. Up." He enunciated carefully. "God you can be annoying. Look, dad invited you to the dinner too."
She frowned at her reflection in the glass. That sounded awfully like she had to be at the dinner. "Wait? What?"
"You heard me. You're coming too so you have to dress up a little... though I doubt it'll make much difference. We'll still have to tell everyone you're a girl."
"Ha, funny. I thought this was a family thing, you know, 'informal get to know you'."
"So? You're family."
"Not by blood," she pointed out quickly, except, despite how much she didn't really want to go and get mixed up in the whole awkwardness of the situation, she knew she would. It was Kai after all, and she'd go to the moon and back if it would make him happy, though she knew it wouldn't; he'd miss her too damn much.
"Neither are they," he pointed out grimly.
"Oh poo. Fine. I'll go." She growled, tracing her initials into the condensation on the window. A flash of white in front of her caught her eye as the small bulbs on the fake icicles lit up. "Mom's home. You want to stay for dinner?"
"Is Treasa making lasagne?"
"It's Tuesday."
"Then, I'm staying."
A.N. Well I can't come up with anything for TFG or SLTS and DC is just blah! right now so I decided to post this so I could get some reviews because I'm a review whore and I want some instant feedback since my creative writing lecturer never gives me any. On saying that, I like the idea of this story and it'll be something light and fluffy to entertain me and get me back into the Amber and Kai frame of mind. There will be other couples, of course. It's 3rd person point of view so yes, other couples will play a key role. Most importantly it'll be a story about Kai and Tala which'll be fun given their circumstances. So please, please review.