Chapter 4: Falling Down the Hole

A snowstorm is hitting the city when I go down to pick Hiromi from the airport. Kenny informed me of when she'd be arriving and told me that he'd given her directions to our apartment. The thought still makes me cringe, well, I've gotten barely just a weak to adjust to the prospect.

The flight coming from Japan to Russia is late, two hours late to be exact. And since I came exactly half hour before time to pick her up, it's almost three hours of me standing in the airport waiting, before Hiromi walks out of the check out area a duffel bag slung on her shoulder and a hand carry trailing behind her.

I choke back a chuckle looking at her expression, it's somewhere between annoyance and nervousness. Annoyed-Hiromi and Nervous-Hiromi they both amuse me to all extents. She's looking around the hordes of people and I wonder what she expects to see. I mean I never told Kenny to tell her I was going to pick her up, I just gave the little slave driver my new address to give to Hiromi. Being as self reliant as she claimed to be, I was sure she'd find her own way to the apartment.

However the conscience I have developed over the years didn't let me go through with the plan and I ended up at the airport waiting to drive Hiromi home.

Nonetheless none of this changes the fact that I want Hiromi out of Russia faster that I can knock beyblades out of a dish. The only option I'm left with is the one I would never want to resort to, convincing Hiromi to quit on her own with Kenny never knowing that she isn't working with me. If by some miracle whoever's up there decides to have some pity on me for once, and she agrees to this all my problems will vanish in thin air. I'll have Hiromi sent back to the somewhat safe and sound confines of Japan and I'll deal with Boris on my own.

I turn my attention back to Hiromi to see her standing in the middle of the hall looking curiously at her surroundings and the mostly Russian people. I remember that she's never been to Russia before, but her interest and curiosity catches me off guard. It looks as if though she has no intention of leaving her place in the centre of the giant airport any time soon far too fascinated by the new surroundings.

I chuckle dryly at her piquing interest and walk my way over to her. Far too absorbed in noticing all her surroundings she doesn't see me approach her from the side and stand a few feet beside her.

"Plan on standing hear the entire day?" I chuckle humorlessly.

Hiromi's fascinated face morphs into that of aggravation merely at the sound of my voice. "Who the hell told you to waste your precious time coming here?"

"I wanted to start working today and it would have probably taken you a few days to find me on your own." I mock her and watch with remorse her face contorting into one of blind rage.

"Whatever," she shrugs, forcefully calming herself down all of a sudden, something I did not anticipate. "Can we leave now?"

I take the hand trolley from her and before she can protest begin marching towards the exit. "Are you still gonna keep standing there?" I turn my head and spit out when I sense her not following me.

Hiromi opens her mouth to retort but shuts it the next second and follows me wordlessly all the way to where my car I parked. I get her luggage in the trunk and get inside the car. When Hiromi is seated in the passenger side comfortably I start the car and get us out on the roads of Russia.

Through the windows Hiromi stares in awe at the early morning Russian streets fascinated by the new surroundings. Again, I can't help but find her curiosity amusing.

"Hiromi," I start, breaking her out of her revering. "I want you to quit."

She turns her head to face me and looks at me dumbfounded. "Excuse me, what? She asks.

"I want you to quit," I repeat, keeping my eyes straight on the road. "Go back to Japan, but not tell Kenny."

"What the hell are you saying?" Hiromi protests in an annoyed tone, turning her head towards me, unable to understand my words. "I can't do that this is my job as much as yours."

"This is Boris we're gonna be dealing with here, it's important for me, and dangerous in general; I don't want you around bothering me."

There's no trace of anger on her face just embarrassment and shock. "This is my job just as much as yours, Kai." For the first time in years I hear her voice tremble. The shame I feel for causing it is indescribable and I would have closed my eyes if I wasn't driving.

I shrug. "You can quit once, no big deal. You'll be more helpful to me back in Japan." Lie. I know. Having her around would be a lot more helpful, not for my peace of mind though, and that doesn't well count.

I didn't think her face could look more hurt, but it did. "I don't care what you think; this is my job just as much as yours. I'll work if I want to; you do not have any say in it."

"Tch." I snort in annoyance and curse myself for my next choice of words, I could never say all this to her if I had been looking her in the eyes. "Why are you so desperate to tag along anyways?"

Hiromi blinks at me and her face. "I swear Kai," she starts, her voice breaking and cracking. "I would never stay here for another second with how much you want me gone, if it wasn't for the fact that this is the only present opportunity to bring down Boris and it's not something I can let go just because you want me to, I would have certainly left and never showed you my face again."

She pauses to draw in a sharp breath.

"All I've wanted since I joined the Bladebreakers is to stop all these men and women using the sport of blading to ruin the life of children, and on top of them has always been Boris. You know why, because all that he did to hurt you." She paused another time and let out a sardonic laugh. "I know that it doesn't matter to you that I care, but I do, and I won't let your irritation with me let me stop myself from doing what I want. I would say you're not worth it, but that would be a lie 'cause why would I be doing all this if it you weren't."

She finished her words and turned her head sideways to stare out the window again.

I open my mouth to retort, but its left hanging open as my mind processes Hiromi's words. "Hiromi…" is the only thing that trails out of my mouth, before it dries out, and my hands began to tremble at the steering wheel. I can't do anything other than stare at the layer of brown straight hair that hides her face from mine as she stares at the surroundings running in the opposite direction once more no longer with the previous interest.

She wanted to stop Boris because of me and all that I had suffered through. The thought just boggles my mind. She cares enough to be risking her life, putting it on line just because I had at one point of life suffered at the hands of that man.

I should not have let my anger get the best of me just like that; I can't believe I insulted her like that. I screwed up, big time.

Entering the apartment with me carrying Hiromi's entire luggage we make our way quietly up the elevator and down the hall to our rooms. Unlocking the door we enter the house wordlessly the tension between us making the air in the apartment fill with strain too. Hiromi looks around interestedly at her new home a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

I thank God, at least I didn't completely break her spirit.

"That's going to be your room," I mumble awkwardly pointing at the door on the left straight ahead. "You can wash up and settle down, if you want."

She nods slowly and heads off without another word.

Shaking my head resignedly I make my way inside the kitchen and hear Hiromi shut the door behind her.

I poor out the steaming tea I just prepared into two cups and placing my own on the kitchen counter I keep the other on the square dinner table in the middle of the room. It's not that I made it specifically for her 'cause she must have been tired, but I wanted to drink tea myself and it was pointless not to make extra for her.

A while of cleaning the mess I made in the kitchen I take my tea and make my over to the very table and take a seat on one of the chairs. Gripping the tea with both hands I take a large sip letting the scorching liquid run down my throat and burn my insides.

Minutes later Hiromi walks out of what is now, her room in night gown and pajamas underneath it, Moscow is no place for shorts and tank tops even in the confines of home I'm glad she realizes that. Quietly she takes a seat across me and picks up her on tea cup and begins sipping gently pausing only to smile at me from across the table.

I swear at myself. Never will I rage at her again like that, I'll do all I can to make her realize that I meant not a word I said to her in th car. If she wants to help with bringing down Boris I will make no attempt to make her feel unwanted by my side to get her to quit and I'll do anything within my power to get her out of it unscathed.

I was the reason she was here an ocean across from her home, risking her life and keeping her anger in check just so I would let her stay. The only reason she was not against working with me was because she wanted to help me get over the demons of my past.

And for all of that she was sitting here across from me a shy smile playing on her lips as an encouraging and supporting gesture for me to trust her despite how ruthlessly I insulted her in the car.

I did not deserve any of this.

-xxx-

Seven days have passed since Hiromi arrived in Japan and I've gotten somewhat used to having her presence around twenty-four seven again after so long. I have always been a withdrawn person and human companionship never appealed much to me, and Hiromi on the other hand is a talkative, social, ranting and badgering woman who finds some sort of amusement in irking me, yet I've been finding her presence to be endurable, soothing and maybe even somewhat likable.

It was nice having another person around to voice my thoughts to other than the ever-listening yet never responding walls. Her presence is to some extent giving me a taste of a companionship I might prefer.

I am in the living room with Hiromi standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows watching the snow falling through the skyline of the city of Moscow from my thirteenth floor apartment room. It's hard for me to sit, even when I'm in the confines of the place I pretend to be my home, something about not-standing makes me feel unguarded and unprepared.

We've decided to lay low for a while and not do any snooping around in public or anything else that might raise suspicions. We're looking up online for information on Boris and to confirm that we have; it's a good thing we both know hacking – thank you to Ian – otherwise the only information we would have yet found on Boris would be the same as that of seven year old rookie blader.

Our faces might not be as recognizable as when we directly were in the blading scene, but both of us are still pretty familiar in the beyblading world and being the in charge of Hiwatari Corp. which owns quite a bit of Russia, makes me still pretty much as identifiable as I was back in the blading days.

Our missions have usually been in places which are not our home countries and luckily for me, many of them have been countries where beyblading isn't a much commemorated sport thus making detection difficult. This time we're in my home country where I'm quite largely known as the Hiwatari heir and where Beyblading is a renowned sport thus making both Hiromi and me, quite distinguishable.

Besides we're new in this apartment and we wouldn't want anyone to know who we are, it'd be better if the people got used to us first and then we start our operation. This is why Hiromi and I have made a habit to leave the place a couple of times a day not so much as to get fresh air, but more so to have people believe that we're a normal couple – couple, as in two friends – sharing an apartment and certainly not working to track down and bring down a local international-criminal.

Hiromi can be careless and carefree both, a bad combination in my eyes, and something I had not expected her to be.

She gets not the tad bit worried about going in places of the public eye, shrugging and rolling her eyes that the likelihood of something bad happening even if we are identified are improbable. For all an onlooker knows, is that she's visiting her former teammate at his hometown across the ocean. In the few hours we take off for appearance's sake she's made a mission to see all of Moscow and to use me as her personal guide, visiting each new place makes her always happy.

It's the lack of lack of world wariness that makes her so incautious. And I'm somewhat glad; she should have no reason to be as mistrusting as I am.

There's an intense blizzard going on outside and Hiromi and I stuck inside our little apartment with no internet and thus no way to searching up further on Boris. Leaving us with nothing to do, but entertain ourselves on our own in the confines of this little two-bedroom home.

I catch a reflection of Hiromi's hazy figure in the partially transparent glass. Her hunched figure is bending over the coffee table and her head is tilted to the side with her cheek resting on the palm of her hand which is supported on the tabletop by her standing elbow. Her face is thoughtful and her lips in a petulant – and seemingly adorable – pout as she's concentrating consecutively on both her laptop screen and the books sprawled in front of her. A pencil is stuck behind her ear and her free hand has been extending for her coffee mug for the past fifteen minutes. It's been extended to the point that it's barely an inch away from the no-longer steaming mug and yet she hasn't had a point in time to actually grasp it in her hand and bring it near her face to take a deep gulp.

Tch. I should just go and hand her the damned mug myself. Not that I can call that stuff coffee, whatever it is that lifeless stuff that she drinks it reminds me of milk with a lot of cream and a few coffee beans floating somewhere about. I don't understand why she doesn't just call it cold milk, not even warm milk because by the time she gets to drinking it, the thing is usually cold as ice.

It is unlike me to take notice of people and certainly not like me to show interest in people. However in the week Hiromi has been living with me, whenever we are submitting in for the night or she is taking a break, I see her taking out a book and reading with deep interest while doodling in the margins with a pencil, or working on her laptop typing away furiously while making notes in a notebook eyes screwed up in concentration. And at moments like these I cannot resist the desire of wanting to know what it is that gets her so interested – ask her, or walk behind her sneak a peak at – what it is she is studying that gets her so engrossed and pulls her away from the world and people around her.

These are the things I have realized I want badly to know about Hiromi among many others that I have noticed in the past weak that I do not know. I thought I knew this girl sitting on the coffee table behind me better than I did myself, but I know only a little more than what meets they eye. There is far more to know and the more time I spend watching her, the more intense does my desire of wanting to know each thing there is to know about her become. And the more I know – like the coffee thing – the more interested I become in wanting to know even further more.

I shake my head and move my thoughts from Hiromi; she'll creep back in there eventually. I sigh. Once this storm clears up which will probably take a couple of days we're going to start investigating publicly. The offices of certain government officers, Russian Forces and Intelligence agencies, BioVolt offices, certain old offices and officers of Hiwatari Enterprises and a few shady bars and Moscow Prison would be the first places we'll be looking up, to find out what Boris is planning.

Hiromi getting involved in bringing down Boris is something I have finally forced myself to accept. Firstly, there is nothing left for me to do to change the situation, I can just be grateful at the fact that I am the one she has been partnered with. Secondly, her fervor and obsession of wanting to bring down Boris is so genuinely sincere that it gives me no right to stop her; it only feels me leaving grateful for being the motive for her wanting to stop the Russian criminal and guilty for what I said to her that day in the car and still having her support.

We are yet to discuss that conversation again; I want to make it clear that I meant frankly none of the things I said and eliminate the hatred she must feel for wanting to help me in getting rid of the demons of my past when I claimed to not give a damn about her. She has not mentioned a word about that night and I don't know if it's because she has settled to believing in it and not letting it interfere with what she believes she has to do for a man she once admired as a friend or if she knows that I meant none of it and finds my childish temper tantrum not worth mentioning considering it was stupid and untrue from it's very core.

Despite all that the thought still makes a shiver run up my spine and the very idea of Boris even looking at Hiromi from the point of view of someone important to me makes me wanna cringe and push her behind myself and hide her from his view.

Boris is the man who is responsible for scarring my childhood, making me suffer and turning me into the emotionally crippled and bastard of a man I am, who's been hiding his somewhat-attraction towards the girl he's currently living with, waiting for as Ian puts it a wedding invitation to put himself into gear.

I turned into a cynic and the virtue of the world was lost to me at a young age, I still see that innocence in Hiromi's eyes and there isn't anything I would do to protect that faith and belief that is still alive in her that lets her sleep peacefully with one eye not open.

I sigh once more and turn away from the addicting outlook, which seems even more magnificent in the raging blizzard. Drawing the curtains close I make my way over to my new house mate. She staring at the laptop the light of the screen falling of her face and doesn't see me approach and I make a mental note to ask her soon what it is that keeps her absorb so much.

I take a seat on the chair next to her, and if she has noticed me she makes no move to show it.

Picking the cup up I place it in the grasp of Hiromi's fingers and move her hand towards her. Hiromi's furious typing stops abruptly and she looks down to stare at the coffee in her hand and my grasp on her

"Took you long enough," she looks up to snap at me, but the smile on her face indicates her shocked gratefulness, "did you not notice how long I've been trying to get my coffee for? But no, you just had to stand there gawking outside."

I raise my eyebrows and stare at her amusedly; her face seems to be going more livid by my lack of anger.

"Do you not have the common sense to help me, when you can see I'm busy," she bites out pausing to take a sip of her cold milk her eyes still trailing on a line on a book in front of her. "I swear I am, stuck with the most frustratingly inconsiderate person in the world. God only knows how and why…" she trailed off hastily into a string of murmured yet audible curses.

"Hiromi," I say amusedly, "shut up."

She glares at me malevolently an eye twitching in annoyance and the grip on the handle of her mug tightening. I resist the urge to chuckle, it's annoying to think that most thing Hiromi does make me wanna smile or chuckle. I shut the laptop screen and begin closing and piling up all the books in a crooked stack.

"Hey!" the Japanese girl protests trying to pry a book from my hand. "What the hell are you doing?"

It must be hard managing her studies being out of country half the time working; it must take a lot of effort to manage her education virtually still that is no excuse for studying herself unconscious and blind. I roll my eyes the smirk never leaving my face. "Getting you to take a little break," I answer picking the pencil gently from behind her ear.

Hiromi folds her arms across her chest glaring indignantly at the now neatly stacked pile of books standing next to her laptop. It's apparent that the idea of taking a break is displeasing for her, and being forced especially by me is taking a toll on her pride. "Break, alright," she seethes out, glaring between the books and my face, "entertain me then."

And at her words the smirk on my face finally wipes out, I expected her to sleep; wanting me to entertain her was not something I expected her to say. I pale and this time she's the one who smirks.

AN: Wrote this a week ago. Mind you, hasn't been beta read. :P Thank you to Moonlight Serenity for reviewing chapter 2 and 3. Giulietta Marescotti for reviewing chapter 3. And Dead-bY-n0w for reviewing chapter 3. ^^'

Review, please. :)

BTW. This chapter got me addicted to present tense, I can no longer write past tense anymore. *bangs head on wall*

03:40 p.m. 28th August, 2012.