December 19, 2011

Warning: Coarse language.

Thank you for all the reviews and alerts again! To be honest, you guys just reading my story is enough to make me feel appreciated. Thank you so much.

A note, from now on I will use "Sergey" instead of "Sergei" since I feel it is a more appropriate spelling for his name. I also updated my previous chapters for consistency.

And as always, my chapters are usually long and slow-paced. So I apologize in advance if the story's progressing slow, but I like it this way. Builds up the tension. Hah!

Disclaimer: Beyblade not mine!

Stress Reliever
Step Four

Dinner came as soon as they got home from the cafe; after that it was pretty much "do whatever the hell you want". And what did Rei want to do?

Nothing, that's what.

Well...maybe pass the time seeing it's only seven-thirty in the evening. Too early to sleep, besides the fact that Rei was far from sleepy. But what to do?

He figured that if he wanted to do some thinking then the bedroom offered the best location; since Boris went out to who knows where and specifically told Kai that he "won't be returning before twelve", he was sure he'd have the room all by himself for a long while. Pleased with this deduction Rei flailed himself onto his bed, laid down and stared straight at the ceiling.

"I just fixed some paperwork of the cafe, unfortunate that it took more time than expected," Kai's unfeeling voice echoed in the Chinese's mind; a sudden flashback of what transpired earlier that day. Now why the hell would it suddenly show up in his mind—

"Ah, alright," oh fuck. "You just suddenly vanished—" NO. "—it...sorta—" NO! "—worried me a bit." Rei wanted to die.

He was not supposed to say that aloud. Sure, it was the truth, Kai's disappearance did bug and worried him the whole afternoon but he was NOT supposed to say that aloud! It's just...it was very weird and it didn't feel right...saying it aloud. Even though it was the truth. It was unnecessary information and Kai didn't need to know it. It didn't even matter! Stupid, stupid Rei.

But...what the hell. What's done is done. Thankfully Kai didn't think too much of it and promptly ignored him after, which made Rei feel somewhat better. Thankfully there were no awkwardness that occurred or Rei would really, definitely regret it that he'd have to find a different place to stay in and he didn't want that. Thankfully nothing else weird happened and the trip home plus the dinner was quiet and normal.

Rei sighed and rolled onto his side. That definitely wasn't what he wanted to think about. Instead of focusing on matters that should be forgotten, shouldn't he be actually thinking about his whole escapade to Russia? He'd successfully evaded the topic for two days now but sooner or later Kai would start asking again, and he really didn't want to lie. Or Yuriy would force him to talk, which was a more likely scenario, and if taken by surprise he might not have enough time to explain himself properly.

He should've planned this from the beginning...

Sigh. Regrets. But, it's too late for them now; now would be a good time to plan his words carefully, just in case Kai decides to inquire again. Heck, this wasn't even a big deal to begin with; if he just told Kai the honest truth then probably the man would understand and he wouldn't have these strange feelings of guilt haunting him. WAIT—WHY was he feeling guilty in the first place? He didn't even do anything wrong! On the contrary, he was always doing everything right and—

Calm down, Rei.

...

He wondered...did they bother to contact him at all? Aside from Rick...

I turned off my phone.

Shit.

Quickly getting off the bed he rummaged the bag atop the dresser, feeling around for his phone. Sure enough it was stuck somewhere inside and he fished it out; without a doubt the phone was off.

Did he even want to read their messages, if ever? Did he even want to find out if they sent him messages or not? What if they did, would it change anything? What if they didn't?

"Y'know what, fuck you," Rei grumbled at the phone, shoving it back inside his bag. All these questions troubling him were only making his head hurt. He wanted to rest and relax and probably do something productive, not burden himself with questions that he wouldn't be able to answer without feeling conflicted!

"What did the phone ever do to you?" a mocking voice interrupted his internal drama dialogue. Rei immediately turned around to face the door—stupid Russians always catching him off-guard. He's losing his touch...if this was a Beybattle he would've lost already.

And sure enough there was a Russian by the door—not that there were other races here aside from him—looking at him strangely, if not amused. Probably annoyed, too.

"Can I help you?" Rei didn't want to sound impatient and unwelcome but it came slightly off; Yuriy raised a scarlet eyebrow at him.

"I'm looking for Boris, not you," he replied in the same tone the Chinese used, not even concerned if he offended or not.

Rei inwardly and wistfully shook his head. It was his fault right here for sounding irritated, but he was so deep in thought he didn't have the reflex to control the tone of his voice. Sighing in resign he gave off a small, apologetic smile, "I heard him say he won't be back till twelve," trying to regain some form of neutral ground. Though he knew it was near impossible with all the death glares he'd been receiving from the redhead for the past two days. He didn't know why they hated him that much; he understood that they might be agitated of his sudden arrival...but not to this extent. Anyway, it's not like they're going to tell him soon; much like how he planned on keeping "his" from them.

Yuriy only leaned against the doorway with his arms folded on his chest.

Alright, now this was seriously making Rei nervous. Was it that time already when he's going to force him to talk?

"So," the Russian fixed his blue eyes on Rei's golden ones, squinting in seriousness, as Rei's heart began to thump madly. This was it...! "Why are you cursing your phone?"

Wha?

Rei let out a sigh of relief. That was so close. Too close.

"I had a hard time finding it," he lied and sat back down on his bed, feeling his legs weaken from distress. Seriously, he's becoming more pathetic as each day passed. "I almost thought I lost it at the airport." Again, more lying. Anything to get out of this.

"I thought you just dislike the thing. Kai sure does," Yuriy mumbled more to himself than to Rei, who looked quite surprised that the redhead shared something with him—apparently it didn't go unnoticed— "You didn't know, did you? Why the hell am I saying this to you even?" he grumbled, straightening up from the door frame. "Though there is something I'd like you to know.

"You're still not welcome here."

With that he left, leaving a baffled Rei confused between hurt and remorse.

x

"Enjoy your meal!"

Two days passed since Yuriy bluntly told him he was unwelcome. To be honest, he had always felt that since he arrived so the concept wasn't new to him, but it's not something you say out loud to the other person, y'know? At least, that's how he was raised back in their village; you try your best to make the guest comfortable even though you don't like them that much. That's exactly why they have these regime of wishing people to enjoy their meal in a cafe—you want them to feel at home even though they might very well be bad people when out there.

True, he's taking this way too seriously. He couldn't help it; those harsh words came from Yuriy. While he's not exactly the most polite or friendliest person in the world, he's still Kai's friend, and Rei, as much as he didn't want to admit it, wanted to be at least on "greeting-terms" with him. By that he actually meant that say, they met each other on the street, they would both say "Hi!" without feeling awkward. The same goes for the rest of the team.

But with how Yuriy regarded him as a person, or rather not, that dream kept on floating farther and farther out of reach.

The black-haired Chinese sighed as he went to an empty table and decided to wipe it again. Sighing seemed to be his favorite hobby recently... Anyway at three in the afternoon they had significantly less customers as most had just finished having their late lunches; Rei noticed from previous days that people flock in again during the last hour of the shop.

"Something wrong?" Kai walked up to him—yes, Kai was there, and yes he was wearing a formal attire—hands shoved casually in his pockets, crimson eyes though mostly stoic, still swam with concern. Was he sighing that loud? Rei shook his head in hopes that Kai believes him, opting to hide away his eyes from fear of giving away his true emotions.

Of course he hadn't told Kai about his little confrontation with the redhead; no matter how he looked at it, however Kai reacts to that event, the results were never pretty. It's either him or Yuriy getting humiliated, and he'd rather not have Yuriy humiliated as it might deter future opportunities of reconciliation, nevermind the fact that it's scarce already.

Besides, he had long decided that he'd work it out himself, since he'd abused Kai's kindness enough.

The slate-haired man seemed to have believed him as he turned around, "Then if you need me, I'll be in my office."

That went well...for now. Frowning slightly Rei followed suit but instead headed for the kitchen. When he's not serving anyone or cleaning tables, he stays in the kitchen or the staff room, not like he had much choice anyway. Oftentimes Sergey would require additional assistance with the cooking—he didn't ask for it, but it really did seem like it as Rei would like to believe, because Yuriy couldn't be found anywhere most of the time thus doubling Sergey's workload. Earlier that day the thought kind of slipped out when he commented about the scarlet-haired's absence; Sergey, who appeared to be the most neutral out of the four of Kai's friends, replied with a solemn voice,

"It's not our business."

That piqued Rei's interest quite a bit. Normally they'd tell him off to mind his own, but this time the blond confirmed that even he didn't know whatever Yuriy's been up to.

And he actually thought that he could find a way to bond with the redhead during work hours, after all they had no choice but to see each other in the kitchen.

Rei sighed for the nth time. Wow, imagine that.

Shit, he's getting worked up again. He could feel it coming; the painful headache, the bad mood, the uncontrollable urge to destroy something—

Calm down.

He quickly changed destination and went for the staff room; he needed to sit down. Boris was already there at the far side of the room, slacking with his legs propped up on the table. Complete with the evil death glare and snort. Rei wasn't in the best condition to filter that out, but at least he managed to grab a chair, sit down with his elbows resting on the table and his palms supporting his head, without giving the light-haired man a glare of his own.

This was not good. This was never good.

Remember your reason for coming to Russia.

Rei still remembered perfectly. It's not that he wanted to; if he had a choice he'd forget altogether and he could go on with his life happier than ever. But things don't ever go that way and he had to endure it till everything solves itself.

But, things don't ever go that way too.

This is a bad idea.

He can't keep running away forever.

Fuck. Rei dropped his head on the table oblivious to the strange look from the other occupant of the room.

Sooner or later, his problems would catch up to him. And he wouldn't be able to do anything about it till it's too late. Unless of course he does do something before all that shit happen; right now though Rei wasn't really thinking straight to figure that out...

...And that's exactly what he's doing in Russia. In Moscow. In Kai's house.

Getting lost.

He looked up from the table, his chin resting on the surface, staring at the blank, white wall in front of him still unaware of the disturbed stare from that other person. What if he just returned home? Would they pretend nothing had happened? That as if he hadn't left at all? Sure that wouldn't fix anything, but at least it would make everything easier. But what if they despise him for leaving in the first place? What if they don't welcome him back? What if they don't want him back?

Okay, he's seriously going to lose it any second now if he didn't stop thinking about it and go back sulking with his face on the plastic surface again.

"You got a table waiting..." Sergey's voice trailed off when he peeked into the room and saw a quite pathetic-looking Rei slumped on the table. He gave Boris a questioning glance; it was reciprocated with a shrug and a roll of eyes. Sergey was...torn. In all honesty, he never had a problem with the Chinese staying with them. It wasn't all that bad like how Yuriy's making it out to be. Besides an extra help with the chores—not just in the cafe but also at the house—was always appreciated...not that they showed it openly, of course.

Rei wasn't moving aside from breathing, the tallest Russian observed. Maybe he fell asleep? He had been doing all the cleaning and serving (and sometimes even the cooking) the past days...Yuriy and Boris took that to their advantage and began slacking off. What did he expect?

"Boris," Sergey called out, giving him a knowing look. The pale-haired man glared at him incredulously; was he making him do the waiting instead of the girly cat? Though Sergey had a serious, calm expression on his face, Boris knew better than not to mess with that. Flipping a finger at Rei's sleeping form he reluctantly stood up from his comfortable position and headed out the staff room, with the tall blond at his heels.

Rei, was in fact, not sleeping. But he wasn't entirely aware of his surroundings either. He was trying to block out some thoughts by distracting himself with better thoughts like the fact that Max called last week and said he'd visit next month, or the reunion that Chairman Daitenji, Takao and Kyoujyu had been planning for ages and finally coming into fruition in a few months, or Hiromi's booming fashion line and how she was planning to make Rei a model—much to his denial of course, he never did like that kind of attention—or Daichi returning from his village and becoming the new Blader DJ. There were so many happy things to think about...just too bad all of them were not about him.

Now that it crossed his mind—why wasn't he updated with Kai's status? If he hadn't showed up at Russia four days ago, he would've never found out what happened with their stoic teammate. Why wasn't he in touch with Kai all these years? He wondered if Takao and the gang were the same. Were they contacting Kai? He remembered a faint memory when he decided to call Kai's mansion in Japan, only to find out that Kai already permanently left and lived in Russia. And that was several years ago.

"Sleeping on the job?" followed by a tap on the shoulder. Speak of the devil.

"I don't get paid enough," Rei joked, sitting up straight to face the cafe owner. Kai was looking as great as ever, though his hair was slightly tussled than a while ago. When he received a smirk as a reply, Rei figured it was his turn to ask questions. "Shouldn't you be in your office?"

"I should be but with Boris' cursing—"

"Shit!" Rei hastily stood up; he knew how well that psycho's customer relations were. "Have you ever considered entering him in Anger Management classes?" he called over his shoulder as he made his way to the kitchen door.

Kai continued smirking. "Never worked."

x

That night, their dinner was a rather strange one. On the ride back Kai made Rei list down some foods which he thought to be easy to make, yet satisfying to the mouth and stomach. Rei felt confident then; if there was at least one thing he's good at, aside from Beyblading, it's definitely cooking. So he thought hard and gave it his best to procure a list in a few minutes time, when he finally managed to present to the slate-haired Russian a paper with five different delicacies written on it. Kai gave it a glance, "Hn"-ed, pointed to a random food and said, "Make that for dinner tonight."

Rei was pitifully confused. Kai just asked him to cook...without even checking if they had the necessary ingredients or not...without even letting him go to a grocery to buy said ingredients. It was a good thing that the type of food Kai randomly pointed at was the right one for that sort of occassion. Improvisation at its finest.

And so, that night the Chinese placed a portable gas stove in the middle of the dining table, a pot of soup on top of it, turned the stove on to prevent the soup from getting cold and placed random sliced vegetables and meat on a plate nearby, still raw.

It was the Russians' turn to be confused.

"What the hell is this?" Boris was the first to voice out his thoughts on the matter, followed by an acknowledgement from the redhead.

"Well," Rei began, undaunted and sat down on his "usual" chair, and by that it meant in front of Yuriy, and in between of Sergey's right and Kai's left, "in China we call this a 'hot pot'. In Japan they call it 'shabu shabu', though Kai probably knows that already."

"Greaaaat," Ivan groaned, clearly unimpressed. "Now can you cook those already?" He pointed to the plate of raw meat.

The Chinese smiled at him. "Oh, you eat them like that."

...

"Trust Kai to make dinner arrangements," Yuriy snorted and was about to stand up from his seat when said Russian grabbed his arm. "What?"

Kai only gave him a pointed glare for a moment then turned to the black-haired man. "Rei, go on."

"Alright, this is how it's done," Rei still had his grin on his face as he picked up a carrot with his fork and dropped it in the pot. "You put in whatever you want to eat in the soup and let it cook for at least half-minute or for how long you want it, depends on you." He fished the carrot from the pot and popped it in his mouth. "It's like cooking your own food!"

...

"I made rice too?"

x

Even though it might very well be labeled a "disaster", Rei enjoyed their dinner that night the most out of the past dinners they had. Even though Boris literally walked off as soon as Rei mentioned the rice, at least he found out something new about them and that's they've never eaten rice and had no plans on doing it soon. Even though in the end the Russians decided to order pizza instead, Sergey still ate a few from the hot pot, Ivan tried to cook the meat but got bored waiting when told it'd take five minutes to cook properly, Yuriy dipped a potato cube and ate it before walking out himself, and Rei was able to spend some time with Kai while eating hot pot with rice.

It was nothing special, really. In fact they rarely talked, it was Kai after all. Besides his ex-teammate's comment about missing eating rice (explains why Rei found some in the house even though Kai's friends had never eaten it), nothing more was said, and they ate the hot pot in silence while Ivan's voice droned in the kitchen as he ordered some seafood pizza.

And now Rei found himself on the second floor balcony, overlooking the calm, quiet neighborhood at night. This place was like heaven compared to how he was used to; throughout the day it was very serene and peaceful, which sort of struck as odd to the Chinese, expecting a noisy, busy environment just like he'd seen at some parts of Moscow. Although it was only a few blocks away where he could see the bright lights of the main district, the area where Kai's house was located still managed to be tranquil.

Leaning on the stone railings, Rei's golden eyes idly followed a stray cat on the street. What was he doing on the balcony in the first place? Well, he wasn't that oblivious to not figure out that Boris had been intentionally avoiding his own bedroom and only going in to sleep because he was there. It made him feel somewhat guilty so tonight he's hanging out at the balcony instead of the bedroom.

A soft gush of wind suddenly ghosted over Rei, making him slightly shiver. He almost forgot how cold it becomes in Russia; thank goodness it's not winter yet or else he didn't think he'd make it without getting sick.

Mao is worried sick.

Where the hell did that come from? He stared at the night sky, his face with an unreadable expression. Were they really missing him?

But...it's not like he didn't tell them anything. It's not like they didn't know. They knew.

And they also knew he'd return.

Eventually.

Rei clenched his fists tight. He's acting like such a kid right now, maybe. But everybody has their limits and it just so happened that he had reached his.

No, he's not mad. Possibly frustrated, but mostly just disappointed. Probably depressed, too. But never mad. He just needed to relax, that's all. In fact, that's what he told them...and that's what he should be doing! Rei scolded himself, stop thinking about that again. Relax! Four days passed and yet it didn't feel like relaxation was coming anytime soon...because he kept distracting himself by thinking about it. He's in Russia, for crying out loud! In a different country! He should be enjoying himself and not stressing out over whatever it was he temporarily left behind.

He wrapped his arms around him, the warmth negating the cool atmosphere of the night. He just noticed the stray cat rummaging through a neighbor's garbage can when he felt footsteps nearing towards him. Judging by the sound of the steps, it was nobody else but his good friend Kai.

"What are you doing here in the balcony?" Kai's smooth, baritone voice slightly echoed, moving to stand beside Rei against the railings.

"Thinking," the Chinese replied, not planning to tell anyone that he was also guilty of Boris' behavior.

Silence.

"Remember what you said about me talking a lot more?" Kai broke it off, making Rei glance at him with a wide golden eyes. "You are the opposite. You've become quieter."

Rei couldn't help but smirk. He didn't think anybody would notice ever. Heck, not even his closest friends did...well, except for Kai. "Maybe I'm becoming an old man," he chuckled.

"You're only twenty-two," Kai responded, still not looking at him and instead focusing on the starry night sky.

"True, true, but it sure is different from how we're used to when were still Beyblading," Rei looked away from the cat and stared at the SUV below. "We were so carefree...it felt like it'll never end. That we'll be Beyblading forever and have fun together forever."

When there was no reaction from the dual-haired man, Rei decided to continue, "Of course, it has to end someday...we still have to grow up, y'know?" Rei laughed, shaking his head. "Though I'm not saying Beyblading is childish. It was a part of my life. I still love it. But it is better suited for younger generations...for us adults, we have to get a job, work our asses off just to survive." Rei smirked. "We don't have time for funanymore."

"Does that bother you?" Kai asked indifferently.

"Not having fun? Of course it does. Though sometimes when I look at Driger it makes me think, would we still have fun if we Beyblade now?"

It was Kai's turn to smirk. "I actually liked you quiet, but right now you ruined that image for me."

"Hey! You were the one disturbing my silent contemplation!"

"I didn't ramble."

"Fuck you."

And just like that, Rei suddenly felt a whole lot better. If he ever had regrets coming to Russia, well, he seemed to have forgotten them...at least, for now.

x

Thank you for reading, till next chapter.

Lei-Lei