I know. never have I done two updates at a row. you can consider it as an early x-mas present if you believe in such. othwerise, I would wanr you not to read this, since it's not good, but my warnings haven't been paid attention so far, so do as you wish.
The battle started off awkwardly. He wasn't sure if he should really put all out against Kai just yet, and Kai seemed to be a bit off balance too. But after their blades had swirled around the dish few times, he grinned at Kai, who just nodded grimly back. And thus he stepped up the game, calling for Drigger. With a flash, the tiger was with him. He was a bit surprised when Kai didn't call Dranzer right away, but just glared at his tiger intensively. Without a word, there was another flash of light and Dranzer appeared, after a long break, he heard it's battle call and saw a satisfied look cross Kai's face before he focused on the match again.
It was fun. He enjoyed it his fair share, and Kai looked as pleased as was possible with his usually expressionless face. They had bladed a while, and briefly he noticed that they had gotten rest of the team as audience, but he chose to ignore them completely. He felt like it was time to end it, or else he would run out of stamina, and he urged Drigger to a final attack, which Kai answered by sending Dranzer against them head on. He was solely focused on the blades, and only when he heard the calls of his team mates did he know something was awry. He looked up, and to his horror, Kai wasn't standing straight anymore, but bend down, hands on his right joint, looking like he was squeezing, face pale and probably cursing by the look of him. He ignored the blades and rushed around the dish to Kai's side.
"Hey, what's wrong?" the red eyes shot up and glared him, having the usual cold shoulder in it, trying to push him away. But he didn't let it bother him, he had to help. "Tell me" he demanded and glared Kai back. They glared for a moment, and Kai straightened up, but he could see it took some effort to seem unaffected by whatever it was that was wrong. Kai looked past him, and smirked.
"I won" he heard Kai mutter through gritted teeth. He glanced over his shoulder, and seeing this was so. His blade had stopped in the middle of the dish, while Kai's still swirled, albeit very slowly and on the edge of stopping. Despite having lost, he couldn't stop a smile. It was good to know Kai had won, and even better that Kai seemed to care about the victory. Kai hoisted a hand, and soon Dranzer landed it. Kai gave it a little squeeze before putting it away. He himself jumped down to the dish to get his blade.
"Next time, I will win you know" he said. Kai snorted at that
"We'll see" he was glad Kai couldn't see his grin and blush caused by that comment, but it warmed him nicely to know Kai didn't refuse to blade again. He took Drigger, whispered a thanks to it and put it into it's pocket, then climbed back next to Kai. He noticed the others were still looking them a bit worriedly, but he figured it was best not to pressure on the matter. He gestured Kai to go down first, and for a short moment there was a hesitation in the red eyes, but it was soon shielded away by blank poker face. And Kai accented the few stairs down to earth, and he could see that the older guys movements were stiffer than they had been before the battle, but he figured that was just caused by the exhaustion of the match and jog combined. He was alerted though when while walking towards the house, after Kai had ordered the others to continue their training per usual, the red eyed guy drew a sharp breath and stop momentarily before regaining his composure and continuing his way. Since Kai didn't want anyone to see there was issues again, couldn't go after him right away, but to wait a while and then excuse himself that he would go make some snack to them as a reward for morning full of exercises. Tyson of course was really cheered up by this, and immediately challenged Max for a battle. He shook his head for the boys jests and went indoor.
He aimed first towards the tower to see if Kai was there, but he could hear no sound through the door. The next stop was Kai's bedroom. He knocked on the door and after a long enough silence that he figured no one was in, he heard Kai giving a permission to enter, and he could hear the reluctance in the voice. Despite noticing it, he opened the door seeing that Kai had already visited a shower, and was now sitting in bed, leaning onto a pile of pillows.
"What now?" Kai asked in hard voice, and the red eyes glared him coldly. He swallowed, but had to ask.
"What happened? And don't say nothing, I know something went awry in the end" Kai made a sound half snort and half sigh and looked away. He waited, he was not going to leave before Kai answered him, and he was not going to ask third time, he knew Kai would remember the question. Finally Kai said in a voice that was oddly amused.
"All went well. The knee showed no sign of being bothered, and I did forget all about it during the match. And in the final strike, my joint suddenly hurt, just like someone would have pierced it with a sharp knife. It still does. It does carry my weight, but only just and only for a short time." Kai gave a dry and dark chuckle " Seems like my body is just set on failing me when I most need it" the guy said in a monotone voice. He didn't know what to say or do. It wasn't fair. Kai had just begun to get over the knee injury, this was not needed. And to him, it sounded like a fracture one could get for too hard and too much training, but he decided best not to say that know. After a silence that ring his ears, he said.
"We better go to doctor to see what's wrong with it. And while we are at it, you can have a check up on the knee too" Kai turned his head to look him, and the red eyes held nothing it them, making his blood run cold and heart ache. This was so wrong. Then Kai said, looking him into eyes
"What's the point? Even if I get this fixed, something else will break right away" he felt tears pricking his eyes, and he shook his head.
"You can't.." tears started flowing down his cheeks, but he tried to compose himself, but failed "you can't give up now. Just keep trying please" he didn't think his next action, but he couldn't stand seeing Kai like that, completely out of spirit and ready to give up. So in desperate effort to stop the other from giving up, he rushed to the bed, and hugged the older teen. He sobbed against Kai's shoulder "I know you. You are stronger than this, you are the strongest one I know. I know you can make it" then his throat was too clenched for words, and all he could do was hold on to Kai and weep. He knew the situation was abnormal, he should be the one comforting Kai, and Kai the one crying, but then again, that seemed very unlikely too, because after all, Kai was still Kai. To his greatest surprise, after a while, he felt Kai slowly move a hand and pet his head, trying to sooth him.
"Guess I have no other chance. Apparently I get shocked otherwise." he giggled despite the tears and hiccuped. Kai gave a snort and gently ruffled his hair. "I said I'd do my best, so you better stop wetting my clothes, I already had a shower" he didn't want to let go, but did anyway. He shouldn't make Kai uncomfortable. He smiled at the red eyed guy and wiped his tears away.
"Sorry about that" Kai rolled his eyes and smirked.
"Whatever. At least I know now that the team would crumble without me" he laughed that.
"I have known that the whole time. If you quit, so will I" Kai lifted an eyebrow but didn't comment, he blushed and got up from the bed and wiped hairs off of his face trying to hide his blush "I mean, if there is no one to train us to be better, why should I linger here?" Kai nodded at that, but the amused sparkle in the red eyes made him a bit nervous. Kai didn't know how he was feeling towards the older teen, right? He swallowed and smiled.
"I shall go make a call and get you a doctors appointment, okay?" Kai nodded. He nodded back and left the room. He closed the door behind him and took a deep breath. He wouldn't have thought Kai was that vulnerable. Or huggable. He smiled to himself. At least now he knew a way to get Kai back on the right track, albeit it being something he would have never thought working. But nevertheless, seeing that Kai had a soft side made his heart glide, despite the otherwise bad situation. So he was smiling softly when he went to the phone, and used all his manners, charisma and wit to get Kai an appointment as soon as possible, getting it on the next day. Pleased with himself, he went to fix the snack he had promised, deciding to go afterward back to Kai and talk some more with him to see what his spirits really were.
fine. I admit it, this is the only fic I have that I am in control of what happens. that probably explains why this isn't as good as the rest is. but like I said in the start, this is not written for any of you like the others are, this is purely for me. nothing neither of us can do about it. until I need this again.