A/N – Apologies for the lengthy gap between updates! Also, I've decided that this story won't end where you might suspect. Or expect. I'm warning you now, so I can protest against your complaints later.
Thank you, THANK YOU for your reviews. They're why the story lives.
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The Rain Outside by Munku-JGSPTV
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Chapter 8 – Oblivious
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Rei and Kai found their way to the Sunset Cove Motel much more quickly than the previous day, and found that Meryl was the only one there.
"Andrew's gone out to get us some takeaway for lunch. Would you like to join us?" Rei found the woman's smile contagious, but politely refused, saying he had other things he needed to do, now that they had returned the key.
Kai appeared all too happy to leave.
It began to rain as they headed back to the train station, and Rei darted under the cover of various shops, trying to avoid the spattering wet, and stopped when he ran to the shelter of the café they had eaten at yesterday.
Kai was still several metres away, and Rei watched as he came closer, walking slowly as though his clothes were not becoming soaked in the manner they obviously were.
Rei shook his hair out and squeezed the tips before Kai came to stand next to him, blinking away the drops of water that trailed into his eyes and down his cheeks.
Rei saw a drop fall on the very end of Kai's nose, and he couldn't rest wiping it away with a gentle finger.
Kai looked at him suddenly, and Rei stopped breathing as he felt his cheeks warm. He pulled the offending hand away, and shoved it into his pocket, Kai merely frowning as he considered something.
"Er… It's pretty close to lunchtime. Do you want to eat here?"
Kai looked up, seeing that it was the same as the previous day. He shrugged, and Rei took it as a simple agreement.
They stepped inside and the small bell of the door tinkled, while Rei was avoiding looking at Kai, whose wet shirt stuck to him in ways that made his mind whirl.
They both sat down at the same table as yesterday, and Rei ordered a hamburger and chips, to which Kai stated "Oh, very healthy, Kon."
Rei grinned, and then felt cheated as Kai ordered a caesar salad with lean chicken, and no dressing. The waitress blinked, as though not sure they stocked any such meat, and was about to move off, before asking,
"Do I know you?"
She blinked and looked at them oddly.
"Oh, we were here yesterday," Rei replied easily, and the woman nodded, shuffling away to sort out their food.
Rei didn't notice the way Kai's jaw unclenched and his eyes darted about warily.
"So… " Rei fingered the dessert menu on their table.
Kai stared back.
And Rei couldn't think of anything more to say.
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Rei watched the small television with glazed eyes as Kai paid for their meal, being gentlemanly and stating that it was his turn.
"Anyone with information should contact local police or the hotline number immediately," the news reporter stated, standing somewhere outside in torrential rain, his small umbrella nearly blowing away.
Rei glanced at the door, seeing that the rain had died down a bit and there were patches of sunlight beginning to peek through the clouds again.
He fingered his shirt collar; their clothes were well and truly dry now.
"Come on," Kai said as he received a receipt and placed his card back in an expensive-looking leather wallet.
Rei eyed it with suspicion, wondering again why Kai had such possessions. They seemed to be his entire life – he carried nothing else with him.
Perhaps, if you had enough money, Rei mused, you didn't need anything but a few simple items. You could buy everything that you needed.
Rei glanced up at Kai, and a small smile came to his lips as Kai sensed someone was looking at him.
"What?" He muttered.
Rei shook his head, and his smile grew as he kept walking, thinking that money couldn't really buy everything.
They caught the train back to Rei's home town, this time he made sure he didn't nearly miss the stop.
They walked out of the small station together, clouds dissipating, and Rei fingered his apartment room key contemplatively.
"I still have to go to my work to fix up my shifts after taking time off… Do you want to come with me?"
Kai stared blankly, as though not expecting any alternative.
"Well, we could go to my apartment first."
Kai shrugged in that now-familiar way and was ready to start walking.
Rei put the key back in his pocket.
"The quickest way to get there is by bus from just around the corner."
Kai didn't nod, but waited for Rei to move and lead the way.
Rei had become used to Kai's minimal displays of expression, but it unnerved him currently, as he seemed quieter than usual. If that was possible.
Still, they hadn't known each other for very long; surely there were facets of Kai's personality he was yet to see.
Kai seemed nervous as they entered the half-filled bus, and Rei supposed it was due to the amount of people. Maybe Kai was claustrophobic. Or just afraid of strangers.
The ride was not long, and they soon stepped out across the road from the Thai restaurant Rei worked at.
Rei felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as the last time he had left here, it was to find Kai trying to break into his apartment. Now, the other young man was with him, beside him, as a friend.
However, 'friend' was not normally applied to a strange and reclusive person such as Kai. Rei liked that Kai was different. Kai didn't seem to expect anything of him.
"Does Mariah work here too?" Kai asked as they came to the front doors of Bow Thai, examining the cleanliness of the building. Rei winced, thinking he had assumed correctly that Kai wouldn't think much of it.
"Oh, no. She used to, that's how I got the job here. But now she…" Rei trailed off and blinked, suddenly realising something. "Actually, I have no idea what she does for a living."
Rei turned his neck and found Kai looking at him intently.
He found that small smile creeping over his face again, and he had to look away. Why was he so affected, just by a simple look?
Rei tried to filter down a blush as they walked past the main area of the restaurant and into the back office, where the owner spent many hours constructing rosters and managing deliveries.
"Hi Tyson," he greeted a young man who grinned exuberantly. "How are you?"
He bounded over to them, a bread roll in one hand and a stack of papers in the other.
"Great. Haven't seen you here for a few days. Ready to work again?"
Rei glanced at Kai, who was standing as close to the office wall as possible, as though trying to avoid Tyson, who suddenly noticed his sour face.
"Are you alright? You look like you just ate a lemon. Or maybe some of our Tom Yom Soup. Seriously, Max really loves stuffing that chicken with chilli. He doesn't realise that most people can't handle the strong flavour like he does. In fact, I'd better have a word with him now. We have a large party booked in for tonight and-"
He was already out of the room, but still talking loudly about arrangements all the way to the kitchens.
Rei laughed, and then moved across to a cork board that had work rosters pinned to it, trying to see when it would be opportune to return to work.
"That was your boss?" asked Kai incredulously, recovering somewhat from the experience of being told confidently by a stranger that he had a miserable face.
Rei lifted up a sheet of paper attached to the board and flipped to one underneath.
"Hm?" he responded, not quite listening.
Kai smirked.
"No wonder this place is like it is, with management like that."
"What?" At first Rei was offended that Kai would so instantly come to the judgemental conclusion that his place of employment was a dump. He was beginning to think that Kai secretly came from a very rich background.
Then his brain clicked with what Kai had said.
"Wait. You think – Tyson – my boss!" Rei burst out laughing, bending over with one hand resting against the roster board, the other clutching his stomach.
"Tyson wouldn't have a clue how to manage a restaurant."
Kai frowned. That was exactly what he had been thinking.
Rei calmed down, realising that his companion was still confused, and looking at him strangely.
"Tyson's not my boss. He's – he just works here, like me. But Emily – she's the real owner of the place – tries to keep him out of the kitchen and away from customers as much as possible. She thinks that Tyson is a bit of a safety hazard, but he can work hard when he wants to."
The expression on Kai's face clearly agreed with the sentiments of Tyson as a 'safety hazard'.
"Emily runs the place pretty well, but she hasn't had the job for long. Max's mum officially owns the restaurant, but she's moved on to other work now."
Kai nodded, and Rei went back to looking at the rosters.
"I think I could come back some time next week… I'd better check with Emily first. The way she organises things… What?" He noticed Kai observing him closely.
"Nothing." Was his response, and he turned away, crossing his arms over his chest.
Rei sensed that this was not the time to pry, and a moment later Emily came into the office, clutching a mug of coffee. She was introduced to Kai and then sat at her desk, checking Rei's hours of availability on her computer.
Kai was distracted from their friendly chatter, and Emily's insistence that Rei take a few more days off to completely rest.
Kai was remembering the way Rei had laughed, without restraint, at a simple voicing of a thought. Kai tried to remember the last time he himself had laughed like that.
He couldn't think of a single instance.
Kai had always known, somewhere within him, that other children grew up differently. He didn't know if Rei even had any family, but whatever his experiences were, they were surely better than his own.
Thinking on these things would not help him, yet Kai could not help but wish Rei would laugh like that again, and he be the cause.
"Well I'll see you next Tuesday, then," Emily said with finality and remarked how pleasant it was to meet Kai, who tuned into the ending conversation as he heard his name.
"And if you come into work looking the least bit ill, I'll send you right home again," Emily called to Rei as they left the office.
Kai smirked. He wondered about who, in a battle of wills, would be the more stubborn.
They were nearly at the front door of the restaurant when Tyson stopped them.
"Hey! You can't leave without saying goodbye!" He panted as he caught up to them. "Oh look, it's been raining again." He poked his head outside and noted the wet pavement.
"So, I spoke to Max about the chilli, and he said he'd use less from now on, so maybe next time you work we should eat together and properly sample his cooking, hey Rei?"
Tyson nudged the other young man as he spoke, full of energy, probably due to the plan that 'sampling' meant 'all-you-can-eat'.
Rei laughed, and noted in the corner of his eye that Kai was clenching his jaw. He wondered whether it was because of Tyson who could be perceived as an annoying person, or for some other reason. Rei didn't want to fantasise about that at present though, and yet his mind couldn't help but drift to when Kai had called Mariah 'jealous'. Was Kai the one being jealous, now? He was pretty sure Kai hadn't been talking about friendships at the time… Did Kai even have any friends? He just didn't seem the type.
Rei was reminded of how little he actually knew of his companion. He felt that perhaps that theirs could be one of Kai's first friendships in a long, long time. He didn't pity Kai, just felt an aching empathetic desire to ease the loneliness that came from experiencing the same circumstances of life.
"… so Emily told me to put my apron back on and at least look like I work here, but I told her to take her bossy attitude and put it you-know-where because-"
Kai cleared his throat in a slightly menacing way and Rei decided he'd save Kai from Tyson's mere (seemingly aggravating) presence, and himself from the embarrassment of Tyson realising he hadn't been listening.
Rei glanced at his watch and in a polite manner conveyed to Tyson that they would see each other soon, and of course they could stuff themselves with a Max-made buffet of de-chillied foods.
Tyson nodded with excitement and was even waving farewell to Kai, who looked thoroughly miserable again, and ran back inside, calling out that he hoped it wouldn't rain for a second time so soon because he didn't want Rei to catch another cold.
Rei chuckled to himself and Kai muttered something about self-centred, contemptible idiots as they walked back to the bus stop, only to see a bus just driving away.
Rei groaned, knowing they'd have to wait forty minutes until another one, and then at least ten more because the bus was bound to be late.
"Do you want to walk instead?" He asked, remembering his theory about Kai's supreme fitness.
Kai was impassive, and Rei began to explain in a rambling way about the futilities of public transport. When he realised that Tyson's babbling nature was rubbing off on him, he also noticed that Kai had begun to walk, and that he had followed.
"All the way to Mariah's, then?" Kai stated more than questioned.
Rei blinked, and raked a hand through his long hair, finding knots.
"No, we can go back to my place, now I've got a key. I was wondering why you would know which direction to walk in."
Kai gave a small smile and kept going, and chose not to voice his opinion of Rei's shiny black strands.
He found it was an effort not to blush.
That thought itself made him rein in his self-control, and a quiet beeping from his pocket was enough to sober him fully.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, and slight surprise showed on his face, and the expression was mirrored on Rei's as he answered the call.
"Yeah?"
They had both stopped walking now.
"Mmm… Alright."
Rei studied Kai cautiously. Was something wrong? Kai was willingly conversing – using his phone!
"Thanks."
Rei let out a breath, understanding that the person calling must be one of those few people that Kai said 'actually cares'. Rei felt a swell of that feeling again, the one that had distracted him back at the restaurant. He instinctively moved closer to Kai.
"Yeah, let me know. Bye."
Kai hung up.
"Is everything okay?" Rei asked, genuine in his concern.
Kai mumbled something, which was clearly to be taken as an assent, and continued walking, putting his phone as quickly as possible back into his pocket. Rei did not fail to see the strange pinkish tinge on his cheeks. He felt his own warm, and decided that he would not invade the stoic young man's personal space again, or feel that weird compulsion to reach out and comfort him.
Rei's thoughts were again disrupted as they came to a pedestrian crossing.
"I forgot that I don't know where we're going," he heard Kai say, and tired not to read into the fact that Kai was avoiding looking at him.
"You lead," Kai said without emotion and Rei did so, observing that the sky was filtering into an orange colour that corresponded with the traffic light in front of them.
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They were a couple of blocks from Rei's apartment complex. They had not spoken a word except for when Rei directed them once through a busy intersection close to the train station they had been at earlier in the day.
His legs were a little tired, as they had been walking for nearly as long as it would have taken to wait for the bus, but Kai did not look even minutely fatigued. Either it proved Rei's musings of fitness regimes, or Kai was so unemotional that a complaint never crossed his brow.
Both notions one would have fitted Rei's perception of Kai's persona, and they walked past an expensive-looking restaurant, Rei especially slowly, as his stomach rumbled obtrusively.
Kai glanced at him and a shadow of smiled shifted across his features.
"Come on," he said almost to quietly for Rei to hear, and gestured them both into Nogarotto's.
Rei felt underdressed as he entered and saw the lavish dinner outfits many of the patrons were wearing. He shrank behind Kai, who seemed to have no qualms about sauntering into such a place dressed in such casual clothes.
It was a large room, with expensive leather-lined chairs and a small wall fountain water feature near a counter behind which waiters prepared drinks. Around the room were freshly green, ferny plants set upon pedestals in a variety of decorated, thick terracotta pots. Small lights were ensconced around the walls, and a centrepiece chandelier glittered from the middle of the ceiling. Placed around the room were several classical paintings of serene landscapes, and expertly positioned mirrors made the restaurant appear even more spacious.
Rei had often gone right past this fashionable eatery, with its culinary awards and wealthy clientele, but he had never gone inside. The option of dining there never even occurred to him, as he rushed by some evenings to get to work. Dazzling reviews in local newspapers could not guide an appetite based on small wages.
Kai, however, stalked right up to the maitre d' who looked quite busy asking some superior customers in a large group celebrating a birthday if their wine was to their exact liking.
The man, with a bushy moustache and thick accent, looked like he was about to scoff a refusal to Kai's request for a table, when Kai flipped out his wallet and showed him something.
Rei tried to see what it was – a business card of some sorts – but couldn't quite make it out. The man was immediately flustered and apologised profusely, ignoring his previous customers entirely to personally show them to a table for two in the corner with the water feature. He quickly removed a small 'Reserved' sign that had been placed in the centre of the highly polished rosewood table and pulled out leather-bound menus for them both to peruse. He practically bowed his way back to his lectern-looking greeting stand near the front of the restaurant.
"Well," Rei said emphatically, his eyes wide at the luxury of the place as well as the strangeness of his being there. He glanced in one of the mirrors and saw a tall man in a brown overcoat being shown to a table across the room. "How did you do that?"
Kai raised an eyebrow, as though asking if he really wished to know. Rei's unchanging expression implied that he did.
Kai shrugged nonchalantly.
"I know people. People who know the head chef, Nogarotto."
Rei's mouth formed a large 'o' shape.
"Have you eaten here before, then?"
He shook his head without consequence.
"What are you going to eat?" He asked instead, pulling a menu towards him, leaving Rei feeling that he was being intentionally directed away from more questioning. But Rei respected Kai enough not to pry further, knowing no reason why Kai should be forthcoming about his apparent (and yet secret) wealth and connections.
Rei refused to think on the idea that they might have developed some sort of 'relationship' that involved trust and a truthful sharing of personal details. A pair from the hearty birthday table were whispering and looking pointedly in their direction, and Rei blushed then stared determinedly at his menu before realising he had no idea what any of the dishes were.
"Uh… Kai?" He asked, feeling stupid.
Kai was muttering through the names of some of the entrées, as though planning for a banquet.
"What are you having?" Rei figured he'd just order the same food, although 'I'll have what he's having', or 'the same for me, thanks' might sound inane to these upper class waiters.
That strange near-smile ghosted over Kai's face again.
"Well there's the Salmone Tricolore Alla Griglia, which is usually grilled salmon with stuff like peppers and onion… Or there's Frutti Di Mare which I've had before –a good seafood pasta – but I have enjoyed caesar salads, though I guess it depends on how fresh they deign to make their Insalata Di Cesare; I prefer it with chicken…"
It seemed he knew exactly what Rei had been thinking. And he wasn't putting him down for it.
That feeling rose up in him again, becoming familiar now, and it told him that Kai only had to choose to be pleasant, and he did it. 'Nice' wasn't in a vocabulary of Kai-descriptions, but Rei felt content as he listened. It was the most he had ever heard his companion talk in the three days they had known each other, and tried to take in as much detail as possible. He felt guilty when he began wondering details irrelevant to Italian delicacies, such as how Kai had perfected his Italian accent, and whether or not he was fluent in the language..
Rei flushed as the maitre d' shoved a lower waitress out of the way to take the order himself and settled on Fettuccine Alfredo, something he thought he would like, as Kai chose entrées and drinks for them both. The way he confidently but casually ordered made Rei feel immediately more relaxed, as though they were back in the Thai diner or some other family café rather than a finer cuisine restaurant such as this.
The man's bushy moustache flared as he stage-whispered to the waitress nearby that they were 'special patrons' and bustled off importantly to the kitchens, presumably to inform the head chef himself of their meal choices.
Rei was rather humbled by the experience, and tried to smile at the waitress who suddenly looked rather awkward, and shuffled to a couple on the opposite side of the room.
Rei caught sight of her name badge, 'Hilary', and wondered if it might even be her first night on the job. He knew first hand how hectic the hospitality industry could be, and he sent her an encouraging look as she walked past again to serve someone else drinks.
The girl seemed rather pleased that someone was not yelling their heads off at her, and then glanced in Kai's direction, who stared back evenly at her, and she flushed, walking slightly faster.
Rei then realised how close their faces were, at the exact instant Kai turned to look back at him.
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