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Chapter 3. I hope you have fun reading.


The Mischievous Matchmakers

Still laying in a pathetic heap on the table, Ray moans about how his life can't possibly get any worst. Suddenly, he hears the sound of two chairs on either side of him squeak against the tiled floor and immediately recognizes the terrifying presence of two certain bladers.

Oh, his life is about to get a whole lot worse.

Lifting his head, Ray finds himself peering up with pink eyes at two smirking Russians, no doubt finding a form of amusement with his dilemma. They're going to have so much fun in the coming days.

And Ray most certainly will not.

"Let me die in peace," he murmurs a plea as he lets his head drop to the table once again.

Bryan's smirk simply grows more sadistic and blatantly ignores the disgruntle teen. "Ok, first thing first. We'll start with the basics."

Leaning back in his chair, Tala slings a casual arm over the back of his chair and gazes at Ray with a taunting look in his icy blue eyes. "Yeah. We're going to stuff the two of you in a closet. That always works."

Ray immediately sits up straight, ignoring the way the room spins from the sudden movement and bristles with indignantly. "In books maybe! But we're dealing with real life here."

"Fantasy. Reality," Tala says holding up his hands as if he's weighing up his options. "Same difference. Let's not get technical here."

"It won't work," Ray states as he folds his arms over his chest, a sulky pout on his lips as he turns his head away.

Bryan leans his elbow on the table and rests his chin in the palm of his hand, the smirk never wavering on his lips. "And how do you know it won't?"

Ray glares at him from the corner of his eye. "I just do."

"Not with that kind of negative attitude," Bryan says, flashing a toothy grin at him. "It will work. Be more positive."

"Well," Tala says as he places his hands on the table in front of him and pushes himself to stand on his feet. He leans over the table to get right in Ray's face, a look of a devious wolf taking hold of his expression. "That's what we're going to find out. Let's go."

"Wait," Ray starts when Tala suddenly grabs a hold of his arm and hoists him to his feet. He struggles with the steel like grip on his arm, close to biting his hand. He hisses and carries on like a feral cat trying to get away from going to the pound. "Let go."

"Just act natural," Tala scowls him. "Bryan and I will take care of everything else."

"That's what I'm afraid off." Ray stops struggling and resides himself to his fate. He lets the red haired Russian drag him effortlessly through the surprisingly empty hallways of the hotel.

He can only hope that this won't be too painful.

--

Edging his way over to the adorable blonde as he leans over a fifth story balcony to watch all the people down below, Ray can't help but take a moment to watch the sight before him. Mystel has his upper body hanging over the side of the railing, his legs swinging with little care behind him. And because of this, Ray has a great view of his perky little butt.

It's mesmerizing.

Suddenly Mystel leans back and lands on his feet. He glances over his shoulder and his face immediately brightens cheerfully when he sees Ray behind him. He turns around to greet him. "Hi, Ray! You slept in late today."

"Er," Ray mutters, shaking his head to snap himself out of his usual Mystel induced trance and scratches the back of his neck nervously. "I hate a rough night."

"Oh," Mystel says in concern. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Something like that," Ray replies quickly, glancing over his shoulder, still showing his nerves. "Anyway, I was wondering if you could help me with something?"

"What's that?" Mystel chirps happily.

Ray falters, trying to think up an excuse to get Mystel to walk into a cupboard with him. "I, er, I think I dropped something in the cupboard and since you have pretty eyes, I mean pretty good eye sight, do you think you could give me a hand?"

Mystel smiles brightly and nods, happy to be of some help to the neko, and funnily enough not picking up on Ray's slip up. "Sure. I can do that."

"Great," Ray says with a half smile and begins leading the hyper blonde towards his set destination. Might as well get this over with as there's no point in drawing out the torment longer than necessary.

Reaching the staff linen cupboard that had been pried open with expert precision, thanks to Bryan of course, Mystel happily bounds in and turns his eyes to the floor, resting his hands on his knees.

"What am I looking for?" he asks, taking a moment to glance over his shoulder.

Ray suddenly blanches. He didn't think of that. What can he say? "Well, it's…" he stutters pathetically for a moment while Mystel stares up at him, blinking his sky blue eyes in confusion.

Thankfully, the door behind Ray slams shut, plummeting the two into darkness. Whew. Thank goodness for minor blessings.

"What happened?" Mystel asks, fear in his voice.

Ray sighs and makes a poor attempt to open the door. "I guess the door locked behind us. Don't worry. I'm sure someone will come along and help us out."

Mystel suddenly whimpers and pushes past him, placing his hands on the door and tries to push it open. But it won't budge and he lets out another tiny whimper of fear. "No."

"What's wrong?" Ray asks in alarm.

"It's so small in here," Mystel whimpers, sounding as if he's close to crying. "I can't breath."

Ray places a hand on the blonde's shoulder and can feel him trembling. He leans forward and realizes that he's having trouble breathing. "Mystel?"

--

Leaning casually against the wall and talking idly together, Bryan and Tala look up in time to see the lift doors open and a familiar dual hair blader and a certain blonde hair Spaniard step out. Kai turns his piercing ruby eyes in their direction and makes a beeline to them, his brow knotted in annoyance.

"Where's Ray and Mystel?" he demands as soon as he reaches the two. "What have you two done?"

Tala can't resist the urge to roll his eyes towards the ceiling at Kai's typical motherly behavior. It's gets annoying when all he's trying to do is scheme. "We've locked them in the closet," he replies bluntly.

"I've always wanted to do that," Bryan adds with a grin of his own.

"Locked them in a closet?" Kai repeats, his brow furrowing even more in thought. Suddenly his eyes widen in realization and concern. "Oh god."

"What?" Tala asks with only a small sense of interest.

"Mystel's claustrophobic, you idiots," Kai hisses as his eyes frantically moving up and down the hall at which cupboard he's trapped in. "He's probably hyperventilating right now."

Tala blinks and then shrugs, turning his attention to Bryan next to him. "I suppose that will be a problem, won't it?"

Bryan taps his chin in thought. "I think so."

"Where are they?" Kai once again demands something from them.

Bryan leisurely points down the far end of the hallway with his thumb. A split second later Kai makes a dash towards the only cupboard there. "Oh well," Bryan sighs in bitter disappointment and turns to Tala. "Plan B?"

Tala shrugs. "Mystel is going to take a trip?"

"Exactly," Bryan says and punches his hand into his fist. "This plan should work."

"And if it doesn't, it will still prove to be highly entertaining," Tala says, once again smirking evilly. "For us, at least."

Bryan matches the smirk with one of his own. "Ray is so much fun to pick on, isn't he?"

"You two are evil, you know that?"

The two jump slightly, totally forgetting that Miguel is here too. They turn to him and raises an eyebrow, both mentally wondering why the Spaniard is here, accompanying Kai in the first place. Did they miss something?

"We try," Bryan says, answering Miguel's question.

Miguel simply rolls his eyes at the two and shakes his head. "Anyway, I'm going to help Kai. And don't think I won't tell him about Plan B."

"Tell him," Tala says, daring him to keep his word. "See if we care. It's not like he can stop both of us."

"He's good," Bryan affirms as he folds his arms over his chest and nods. "But he's not that good."

"You can't stop us," Tala says with a smirk as he eyes the blonde suspiciously. "You don't have the amount of experience that Kai has. So you have no chance."

Despite rolling his eyes skyward, Miguel finds himself nodding in agreement. "That is so true. But that doesn't mean I won't try. Even if it just to help Kai out somehow."

Tala raises an eyebrow as he watches the Spaniard step pass them and take the same path Kai took moments earlier. He then turns to Bryan, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smirk. "…You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Bryan returns the grin with one of his own. "Oh, I'm thinking what you're thinking."

Tala folds his arms over his chest and closes his eyes in deep thought. "Things have just got a whole lot more interesting."

"Indeed they have."

--

Ray is about to fly into full panic mode. Mystel is leaning heavily against the door, hyperventilating and shaking uncontrollably. The poor frighten blonde has tears rolling down his cheeks.

Ah! What is he suppose to do?!

"Try and breathe for me, ok?" Ray says as he rubs a soothing hand on his back trying his best to calm him down.

"I can't!" Mystel suddenly cries out, pounding a tiny fist on the door. "It's too small in here. The walls are closing in. I can feel them."

Suddenly the door flies open and Mystel falls forward, but instead of hitting the carpet of the hallway, he lands in someone's arms, who in turn quickly grabs a hold of him and pulls him towards the open balcony.

"Kai!" Mystel cries out in relief and clings desperately onto him as he continues to have difficulty breathing.

"You're ok now," Kai says with a gentle voice as he helps Mystel lean against the railing of the balcony. He rubs his back softly and continues to whisper soothing words to him. "Take long and deep breathes for me, ok? That's it. You're ok."

Ray steps out of the closet, his body slumping forward with frustration and defeat. "Let me guess," he says, as Miguel appears to stand by him. "He's claustrophobic, right?"

"Right," Miguel nods his head, keeping his gaze directly at Kai, a smile of warmth on his lips at how Kai is comforting Mystel. He's a natural at it, he really is. He shakes his head and turns to Ray, unable to stop a flicker of amusement in his eyes at how disgruntle Ray is currently looking. "How long have you two been in there?"

"About ten minutes," Ray estimates.

"Ten minutes too long for Mystel," Miguel comments as he folds his arms over his chest. "Looks like Plan A failed."

"I told them it would," Ray murmurs, not bothering to appear surprised at how Miguel knows about the plans. He's too tired to care. "But they just won't listen."

"Is that why the three of you get along so well?" Kai suddenly hisses over his shoulder before turning back to Mystel and helping him to stand on his own feet.

Ray raises his hands in front of him in surrender. "Ok, ok. My fault."

"Feeling better?" Kai asks Mystel gently.

"I'm fine," Mystel replies softly as he rubs the salty tear trails from his cheeks with the palms of his hands and turns his attention to Ray, a sense of embarrassment and guilt in his expression. "I'm sorry, Ray. I didn't mean to act in such a way."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Ray tells him with a sense of tenderness. "It's not your fault."

Mystel offers a half smile. "It was unfortunate that the door slam shut behind us, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," Ray twitches. "Unfortunate."


Aw, poor wittle Mystel. He's so cute. -coos at him for an hour-

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