AN: Well, I got it together quicker than I though I would. So here you go, the second chapter of Twin Tigers of Japan. I would like to thank my reviewers, but don't want to waste too much of your time. Your questions will be answered after this chapter has concluded. For now, I'd just like to let you know that we have maybe four more chapters to go before I'm writing off the top of my head. Again, don't expect updates quite so often, finals are coming up here at school, and then there's x-mas, etc. The life of a college student is never boring.

Disclaimer: Beyblade is not mine. Suing me will not gain you anything. For Heaven's Sake, I'm a college student: we never have ANY money. Some of the characters coming up are mine, you'll find out later on. I don't own other anime involved in the making of this story either. I'm just making a crossover. And the plot is twisted from those by authors mentioned in Chapter 1. Although uniquely mine as I write it, the idea was taken from another and morphed to fit my own purposes….. no stealy, and I hope the three authors don't mind that I'm using this, though I should really only be asking Ladya C. Maxine. Anywho…. Enough with the blabbing, on with the fic!

Revealing Thoughts

Over the next three days, Rei got progressively better. Being out of the sterile hospital environment and being around his friends did him a world of good, even if he couldn't move much. Several reporters came into the suite to talk with Rei about the tournament, as they hadn't been allowed near him in the hospital. He suffered through them as best he could, managing to not get visibly upset or frustrated when they asked the same question several times. He did, however, go through an entire set of wooden pencils in private after the reporters left, breaking them until they could no longer be used. The maids who cleaned the suite didn't make a single comment upon emptying the trashcan they had been tossed in. They had merely given him sympathetic looks.

Sleeping arrangements were in the usual manner for non-tournament housing with three available bedrooms. Mr. Dickinson, of course, stayed in the fourth and last room in respect for all the work he had as the head of BBA. This meant that Tyson was put in his own room at the end of the hall, where his snoring would not disturb the others. Kenny and Max shared a bedroom with two twin beds, separated from Tyson's room by the bathroom. This prevented any sound from Tyson's room to be heard from their room when the door was closed. Next to Mr. Dickinson's room across the hall from the bathroom, was the master bedroom (directly across from Max and Kenny's room). This is where Kai and Rei were located, sharing the king-sized bed without problems.

Rei was presently propped up in the bed, comfortably leaning against numerous pillows, the blankets pulled up around his waist, legs still kept flat as they supported the huge textbook he was reading. With one hand, he precariously balanced a notebook while taking notes in it. He had been doing so quite often, to the confusion of the three younger bladers and Mr. Dickinson. Kai had just growled at Tyson when he had been asked for the third time why Rei was reading VOLUNTARILY. As far as Kai was concerned, it was Rei's business, though he figured that Rei was only trying to keep up with the grade level he was supposed to be at.

At that moment, Kai flung the door open, startling Rei into dropping the notepad and looking up. It was about 10:30 at night, so the lamps were on. In obvious frustration, he threw himself down on the other side of the bed, not even bothering to turn down the covers. He threw one hand over his eyes and growled deeply before making a visible effort to sink into meditation. Rei watched subtly as Kai failed to meditate and finally gave up, leaving his arm over his eyes. After a few minutes, Rei shrugged and began the long, drawn-out process of dealing with an angry Kai.

"Kai?" he asked softly, reaching out to lightly run fingers through Kai's bangs, a move Kai could barely feel. Kai grunted in response.

"What did they do this time?" Rei continued.

Kai sighed before saying, "Brainiac decided to watch the news in an effort to discover all the latest on computer technology. Smiley started whimpering, wanting to watch his cartoons, while Doofus wanted to watch the food channel. It devolved into the three of them fighting for the remote, literally. I ended up sending them to their rooms and turning the television off, as if they were two year olds."

"I see," was Rei's noncommittal reply. "Well it's starting to get late. Why don't you sleep it off, since you can't meditate. I should go to bed myself." Kai's grunt was answer enough. Since Rei was all ready in his night clothes (loose Chinese black pants, with a tie waist, and no top), he merely put his book on the dresser and turned out the light, snuggling into the warmth of the bed like a cat. Kai got up, grabbed his own nightclothes (a blue set of training pants, also no shirt) and a clean set of underclothes before heading into the master bathroom for a quick shower.

By the time he was finished, less than ten minutes later, Rei was mostly asleep. Even with the thick covers on the bed, Rei was curled into a tight ball, closer to the middle of the bed than he had been before. Kai raised an eyebrow. Realizing that it was probably just Rei's neko blood seeking warmth he shook his head, sending a few stubborn water droplets flying. Giving his hair one last thorough rub-down with his towel, he discarded his towel and dirty clothes on the floor next to the closet.

He pulled down the covers and slipped underneath, going towards the middle and brushing his hand along Rei's left side. Rei immediately relaxed, moving closer to the warmth of Kai's body. Kai allowed Rei close, the only one he could bring himself to accept the touch of. After what had been done to him in the abbey, he had closed himself off. Seeing Tala and the others at the tournament, as well as the events with Black Dranzer, had hurt him to the core.

Yet, and here Kai paused in his thoughts to stare at the neko-jin beside him, Rei had been even more hurt when Kai had betrayed them for Black Dranzer. In the end, partly out of knowledge of what Black Dranzer really represented and partly out of guilt for hurting Rei, he had returned to the Bladebreakers. Rei had always been a silent support for Kai, understanding without words when Kai needed space or a friendly presence.

And several times, when Kai had gotten up around two in the morning due to a plethora of worries, he had noticed Rei was up and gone in search of him. What he found was surprising. Each and every time, Rei was outside whatever building they were in and practicing a rigorous and deadly set of kata. Sometimes Rei wielded a wooden version of weapons, sometimes he practiced bare-handed, but it was obvious to Kai that Rei was even more deadly in a physical match than Kai himself was.

But that was beside the point, Kai turned out the lights and lay down completely, leaving himself open and vulnerable as he fell asleep, knowing that even if he shielded, a sleeping cat would always get their way and it was just better to accept that from the outset.

Around one in the morning, Rei woke up. This was usually the time he would crawl out of bed and go through his kata. They took him a good four hours and then he would sleep some more. He did this so that the others wouldn't learn about it and ask questions. Yet he knew Kai had discovered the sessions. But he could trust Kai. Even during Black Dranzer, he had trusted Kai to return, although he had still been hurt by the betrayal.

The situation he found himself in that night was unique. He forced himself not to move to prevent the aggravation of his injuries, but blinked in quiet surprise. He was literally curled around Kai, searching for any warmth the fiery blader could give. He lay with his head tucked under Kai's chin, his body half covering Kai's. His arm was thrown across the chest, curling until it was almost even with his nose. Since it was still wrapped heavily in bandages, he was surprised Kai hadn't woken up before and moved his arm. His less injured leg was slung over one of Kai's, resting in the curve formed where Kai's two legs met.

After that evaluation of his own body, which took mere seconds, he noticed how Kai was positioned. Kai was in the exact middle of the bed, completely relaxed, a fact that surprised Rei greatly. Rei had watched Kai sleep before and knew that the blader was tense, even asleep. But Kai was almost boneless in relaxation, both arms curling around Rei to cradle him around the waist. That was not all, Kai was also curling back into Rei. It was barely noticeable, but telling all the same.

Deciding that movement would really be a bad idea at the moment, Rei closed his eyes and sought to fall back asleep. He felt very oddly secure in Kai's embrace and dropped off quickly, promising himself that he would investigate these new and unusual feelings for his team captain.

When Kai woke up at 8:30 later that morning, he was not at all surprised at their positions. Rei was a very physical person and, as it has been mentioned previously, Kai knew better than to mess with a neko-jin, who was part cat after all. He carefully extricated himself from the neko-jin's embrace before performing his morning ablutions and getting dressed.

As Kai headed into the living room of their suite, he thought of what tomorrow would bring. They all left for Japan, while Mr. Dickinson stayed behind here. Kai knew nothing of what he was going into and that worried him. If he were an ordinary person, he might even say that the thought of the unknown scared him. But Kai was not allowed to be scared. So Kai sat down on the couch and tried not to think of such things. Instead, he tried to figure out why he felt so comfortable with Rei.

In the bedroom, Rei had woken up as Kai had left the bed. Rei was an extremely light sleeper, as most cats are. After Kai had left, Rei carefully maneuvered himself to the end of the bed and into the wheelchair to begin his own morning ablutions. Because these were mindless activities, Rei focused on his feelings for a certain blue-haired Russian. He spent a good hour searching his heart and coming to terms with what he saw there, though he would never say a word.

That night, as Rei slept, Kai sat at the window in their bedroom, staring out at the moonlit streets. Despite the fact that he had no wish to return to either the abbey or his grandfather's house, Russia was his home. For twelve years of his life he had lived in this country of cathedrals and long winters. In this land where the Czars once reigned, he had been taught the things that made him into the dysfunctional teenager he was. He knew he had mental scars from Boris and Voltaire, it was obvious in his constant desire to be the best as well as his inability to express his feelings.

As much as he knew the others thought that he was incapable of emotions other than anger and frustration, Kai could feel. He felt just as much as any other person. But the ability to express those emotions had been beaten out of him by Boris. At the moment he was confused, sad, and a little nostalgic. But mostly, he was worried. As much as he trusted Rei, he didn't know what to expect from Rei's family. Could they accept someone as broken as he was? Was he even worth wasting all of this time on? When they found out that he had betrayed Rei to join people who wanted to seriously injure Rei and take Drigger, would they hate him?

Kai brought his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around both legs, and rested his chin in between the knees. In that semi-fetal position, he came to terms with his heart and mind. He could never express what he had discovered; it would destroy the friendship he had managed to build with Rei. His feelings would be kept inside, just like every other time he'd had an emotion. Rei would never learn that Kai loved him.

Rei opened his eyes fractionally, careful to not let too much of his irises show. Moving his head slowly to avoid making any noise, he turned to watch Kai through his eyelashes. What he saw worried him more than losing Drigger had. He knew that, as much as Kai didn't show it, Kai had feelings. But to see his team captain so depressed to the point where he caught sight of a thin trail of tears that sparkled in the moonlight, tore his heart apart.

The rest of the night was spent restlessly by both of them. Kai continued to cry silently, unaware that he was doing so, or that he was being watched by Rei. Rei really did try to sleep, knowing that until Kai chose to let him in, there was nothing he could do.

AN: Thank you to my three reviewers.

Devilburns, you were my first reviewer and thank you for your praise. Here's a cyber Rei and cyber Kai plushie for you! (Hands over said objects).

Jojo, I'm glad you're enjoying this. I hope I continue to please with where I take this story. Have a cyber lollie for being my third reviewer. (hands over the lolly)

And finally, Mistskeeper, whose response was the longest. Have a jar of cyber cookies (hands over said jar). I will think on your advice about the nickname, I haven't gotten to a point in the story where they would call each other by nicknames. Thank you for the compliment, I'm glad someone thinks what I'm writing about is a good idea. About your question… Well, you'll just have to wait and see. Keep reading and you'll find out. A death threat for not updating? That's a first for me… I find it kind of funny, but school comes before writing and I sometimes take a month to get where I like in a chapter. For the next few chapters, I'll probably be a little quicker cause I've already written it once. And hopefully, over the holidays, I can get a little more written. But we'll see… Murphy's Law and all that.

Please read and review, as this is only my second fanfic (please read my Harry Potter Fanfic, Growing Up) at all and my first anime fanfic. Thank you for taking the time to read this story. Although I know it sounds like I'm begging for reviews, they really do cause inspiration… I think Kiriko-chan lives off of reviews. Flames will be used to roast whoever came up with my scheduled times for next semester, or my brother, whichever is more convenient depending on my geographical position.

Till next time, Aloha a hui hou and ja matta ne!

Arlinya Sayuri Roh-?