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Whoo, we get to see Kai in girly clothing in this chapter! Will Kai kill me? Well, read on to see! X3


Chapter 9:

Miguel hears several gulps of fear from his fellow bladers as Tala leads him out of the room, but he manages to keep the smile on his face regardless. He's not frightened of the Russian redhead who has a reputation of being able to make harden serial killers wince in his presence alone.

Well, not overly frightened, anyway.

Stepping into the kitchen for some privacy, Tala turns around to face him, leaning against the kitchen counter as he folds his arms over his chest. "I guess you know what this conversation is going to entail, right?"

Miguel nods his head once as he moves to stand by the kitchen table, one hand in his pocket, the other grasping onto the back of a chair. "I'm pretty sure I know what to expect, but I'm also pretty sure it won't be overly pleasant, right?" he replies.

"Absolutely," Tala says as an unnervingly sadistic smirk appears on his lips. "I'll be as blunt as possible. As you know, I see Kai as a sister and as her older brother; I am entitled to a few perks."

"Such as?" Miguel finds himself asking, although he is pretty sure he knows what the answer is.

"Scaring the hell out of any potential suitor, of course," Tala quips, the smirk on his lips taking on a more wolf-like quality, one that seems to be taking great pleasure in toying with his pray.

"Ah, I see," Miguel says as he gives him a friendly smile and tilts his head to the side, looking far too casual. "But I'm not a potential suitor, am I?"

The smirk on Tala's lips falters for a moment from the realization that that is true. "No, I guess not," he says reluctantly as Miguel isn't trying to court Kai, he has already succeeded, before giving him a pointed look. "But that doesn't mean you get to skip out on the rules, does it?"

This time Miguel gives a light wince, his friendly smile losing a bit of its shine. "No, I suppose it doesn't," he mutters.

"Good," Tala says as he practically simpers at him, his blue eyes holding a sense of mirth within their depths. "Let me start by saying the Abbey is situated a mere two miles away from the Russian Tundra and the winters there are bitter cold, especially during the storm season. Did you know that you only have to be exposed to the freezing elements a mere five minutes before you start feeling the effect of hypothermia? Only two minutes or so if you were badly mangled."

Miguel outwardly winces at the silent sadistic curl in his tone. "I was only mildly aware of that," he replies. "But I'll make sure I won't do anything stupid to warrant a trek through the icy wilderness."

"Ok. I'll start with the basics," Tala then carries on saying, that fiendish grin not once wavering from his expression. In fact, it only seems to grow with perversity from Miguel's slight discomfort. He now wants to see how long it will take until Miguel squirms from intense uneasiness of their friendly little chat.

Sure, he'll probably cop an earful from Kai later on for picking on her boyfriend, but as her older big brother, this conversation is damn near mandatory!

"When the two of you start the whole going out for dates stage, you are to be ready early, arrive half an hour before the official date time," Tala explains, enthusing the word before the date time, giving Miguel a subtle hint that if he's late, he might as well not turn up at all. "And if Kai's not ready, you will wait ever-so-patiently for her."

"Not a problem," Miguel quickly speaks up, still giving Tala that friendly, you-don't-scare-me smile he wore earlier. "Matilda and Aaron can spend hours in the bathroom getting ready and I happen to be far too punctual for my own good."

Tala casually raises an eyebrow at him and Miguel realizes that he may have gotten one over the Russian.

"You are not to force Kai into anything she's uncomfortable with," Tala continues, trying to stay fearsome and in control.

However, Miguel finds himself snorting in disbelief. "As if anyone could force Kai into doing anything she's uncomfortable with," he says with a chuckle as he remembers the hell poor Hilary and Matilda had to go through to get Kai to spend the day shopping with them.

Kai eventually relented, only because the girls promised that she could spend the entire day away from both Tyson and Daichi annoying her.

Tala taps his chin in thought. "Hmm, that's true..." he mutters to himself more so than to Miguel. He knows firsthand how stubborn Kai can be and if she really doesn't want to do something, it takes a hell of a lot to convince her to give it a try anyway.

Shaking his head abruptly, Tala focuses his attention back onto the blonde-haired Spaniard in front of him and gives him a stern look that could turn boiling water to ice in an instant. "No inappropriate touching," he practically hisses at him.

"Unless she initiates it first," Miguel adds with a click of his tongue and a dip of his head.

A twitch of annoyance ripples through Tala's being and his right eye gives an involuntarily movement. "No night clubs or bars, or anything that will entail Kai wearing short, tight clothing," he carries on to say as he presses his lips together tightly at the thought.

He can just imagine Kai walking into a bar wearing a sexy black dress and all the degenerative deviants those places seem to attract will immediately focus their perverted attention upon her.

The very thought of it makes his skin crawl and want to destroy something.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Miguel quickly reassures, his own eyebrow giving a random twitch as he seems to be having the same mental imagery that is plaguing Tala. "I hate nightclubs and I know that Kai does as well. And as for the tight clothing? Not when there's a huge crowd of people around to gawk at her."

That answers pleases Tala somewhat and he calms down a fraction. "One more thing, if you hurt her-"

"I will personally seek you out so you can beat the shit out of me," Miguel says as he interrupts him with a charming smile on his lips, nothing but sincerity in his words.

This conversation isn't exactly going as planned for Tala. He wanted Miguel to squirm under his brotherly protective gaze, but he's staying cool and confident, easily saying the right things to set aside Tala's wrath.

Still, it is ungodly annoying how cool he is.

Miguel's calm demeanour could be the result of two things; Kai warned him before hand, or Miguel loves Kai deeply and isn't afraid of him whatsoever.

And something tells Tala that it's the latter of the two.

"You know, this conversation isn't nearly as fun if you confidently counter everything I say," Tala mumbles as a very small pout of annoyance appears on his lips. "I wanted to see you squirm."

"You forget that I'm a big brother as well," Miguel says as he chuckles lightly and moves to leans against a wall. "I have this same kind of conversation of my own in this head of mine for when Matilda or even Claude and Aaron start dating."

"So, in other words, you have the very same script in your head, don't you?" Tala asks, the corners of his lips twitching into a grin.

Miguel nods his head once, his smile never wavering. "Word for word."

Despite his irritation at not seeing Miguel stutter and squirm from nerves in front of him, Tala's expression softens slightly and he seems to nod his head in approval. "So, I guess that means I won't be able to frighten you?"

"No, you won't be able to scare me off," Miguel says firmly and confidentially, before joking, "not that Kai would let you, right?"

But then, a flicker of annoyance appears in his shimmering sea blue eyes. "However, Ray, on the other hand..."

"Yeah, that's right," Tala says as the gears in his head immediately start turning, remembering their previous conversation. "He was having a good old perv, wasn't he?"

"And that shouldn't go unpunished, right?" Miguel says as a statement more so than a question.

"No, absolutely not," Tala quickly agrees, already planning something in his mind for the unsuspecting Neko-jin. No one pervs on his little sister and gets away with it. He had beaten up a gang of drunks back home in Russia for just whistling at Kai, there's no way he's letting Ray get off scot free.

"I think it's time that I have a nice old chat with Ray, don't you?" he says, again, not a question, but more of a statement.

Miguel can literally see the promise of torment in the Russian's gaze and finds himself chuckling softly. "Have fun," he tells the scheming redhead.

Tala flashes him a smirk that would send lesser beings running in terror. "Oh, you know I will," he sniggers with dangerous mischievous.

"Miguel?"

Lifting his head up, Tala immediately recognizes the voice that belongs to his sister and he sends Miguel an almost sly look. "Hmm? You have fun now," he says as he walks over to the blonde and wraps a somewhat friendly arm around his neck before tightly it suddenly, almost choking the poor Spaniard.

"And remember," he hisses into his ear. "No inappropriate touching in front of me. I do know how to use a steak knife efficiently."

Under Tala's arm, Miguel physically winces and nods his head in understanding. "I'll restrain myself," he tells him in earnest.

"There you are," Kai says as she steps into the room, eyeing the two of them critically. "What's going on?"

The two males immediately look up to greet her and found themselves breathless at the sight before them.

Gone are the boys shorts and shirts, Kai is now wearing a light blue denim skirt that is purposely frayed at the ends and are sitting perfectly on her slender hips, held there with a piece of simple black material acting as a belt. The skirt is the perfect length, enough to hide what should remain hidden until she is ready to take her relationship with Miguel to the next level (or in Tala's opinion, until they are officially married) and short enough to enhance her sexy and powerful legs that seem to go on for miles.

Her top is in the style of a gypsy, Boho type garment, loose fitting around her bust area and hanging off one of her shoulders, revealing the seductive appearance of her collar bone. The top is black in colour and gathered at the waist, revealing a couple of inches of bare skin just under her bellybutton. Peeking out from behind her top are the straps of a dark purple string bikini top, tied securely at the base of her neck. The sleeves are mid length and loose, white embroidery of flowers around the hemlines.

Lose tendrils of stormy gray hair frame her face, the midnight blue tresses pulled back into a very messy ponytail, giving her just-out-of-bed appearance. She wore no make-up, which was fine to either male, as they felt she doesn't need any.

Taking his eyes of his stunningly beautiful sister, Tala glances at Miguel to find him literally gaping at Kai, his mouth hanging open. With a roll of his eyes, Tala jabs an elbow into Miguel's rips, pulling him out of his trance and to stop him from drooling.

Shaking his head abruptly, Miguel walks over to Kai and takes one of her hands in his, pulling her towards him so he can have a closer look. "Wow, you look great Kai."

Kai immediately blushes darkly and looks down at her clothing. "Oh, er, thanks," she mutters.

"We finally got her into a skirt!" Hilary announces behind her with a grin of satisfaction, her own appearance more on the tired side of things. "She struggled for a bit, but we won in the end. Doesn't she look great?"

"Yeah," Miguel quickly agrees as he readily runs his eyes over Kai's form. These clothes are not something he imagined Kai would wear readily, but they certainly folds to her figure wonderfully. Heck, she would look amazing in a garbage bag. "These clothes suit you really well, Kai."

"You think so?" Kai asks as she lightly tugs are the straps of her swimming top.

"Absolutely," Miguel quickly agrees.

"Um, anyway," Kai mutters as she curls a strand of wayward hair behind her ear and looks uncharacteristically shy. "What are you two been talking about?"

Tala immediately grins at her in a wolf-like way and abruptly pulls Miguel into a headlock, playfully grinding his fist into his blonde hair. "We're just having a manly discussion," he tells her mysteriously.

However, Kai rolls her eyes and presses her index and middle finger against her forehead, a force half laugh escaping her lips. "Right," she mutters, not believing a word he says.

Standing up straight, Kai walks over to the two boys and lightly whaps at Tala to get him away from Miguel. She then pushes herself into his chest and gives Tala a half-hearted glare, silently telling him to back off, Miguel belongs to her now.

Seeing Kai's glare only makes Tala's expression light up in amusement and he holds his hands in front of his as a sign of peace. He then shoves his hands into his pockets and slumps his posture, that knowing wolf-like grin on his features not fading at all.

"Fine, I'll leave the two of you alone," he says as he slinks out of the room, to no doubt wreak some havoc upon the other occupants at the dojo.

Watching as Tala leaves the room and waiting until he's completely out of sight, Miguel moves to wrap his arms around Kai's waist, pulling her further into his chest, one of his large hands resting on the small of Kai's back, his cool palm resting against her warm, bare skin.

"Ok, what did he say to you?" Kai asks him after a moment of just holding each other silently. She tilts her head back to look upon his face, a slight crease in her brow giving him a small hint of her irritation. "If he threatened you-"

"It's ok; we just had a chat, that's all," Miguel cuts her off, chuckling lightly at the protectiveness in her tone.

"A chat about what exactly?" Kai presses for more information.

Miguel gives a light-hearted shrug. "He just gave me the mandatory 'Protective Big Brother' speech."

Kai continues to look apprehensive, eyeing him critically. "Really?"

"Yes," Miguel says as he chuckles again. "He can't scare me off, and he knows that, so he didn't try very hard."

"But he did try?" Kai asks, pressing her lips together in a thin line.

This time, Miguel doesn't chuckle, but instead laughs outright. "It's nothing," he reassures as he pulls Kai closer against his chest and rests his cheek on top of her head. "He just told me how cold the Russian winters were and how you can die from a mere five minutes exposure, two minutes if you were hurt in some way, shape or form."

Kai immediately pushes away from his chest, a flicker of fire in her eyes. "So, he did threaten you!" she hisses, her eyes immediately narrowing and she snaps her attention in the direction Tala slinked away in earlier.

"It isn't something to be concerned about," Miguel tells her as he pulls her back into his arms, keeping a firm hold of his feisty Phoenix. "It's not like it will ever happen. I can promise you that."

Kai mutters something under her breath, but quickly succumbs the warmth of Miguel's arms and she sinks against him, resting her cheek against his chest. She listens to his heartbeat for a moment, a soft smile gracing her lips when she realizes that his heart is beating in time with hers.

"Thank you for putting up with that," she murmurs with a soft purr in her voice as Miguel is now gently massaging the tense muscles in her neck and shoulders with his talented hand. "My god, he can be so protective sometimes."

"I know, and I completely understand why," Miguel whispers a reply, nuzzling his nose into her hair and taking a deep breath.

"Hmm?" Kai hums softly, completely relaxing in his arms.

"It doesn't matter," Miguel says as he leans back a fraction and slips his hand under her chin so he can look into her eyes. "You're mine now and I'm not letting go."

A genuinely warmth appears in Kai's expression and she leans up on her toes so they are now nose to nose. "Not that I would let you, right?" she jokes before lifting her arms, wrapping them around Miguel's neck and pressing their lips together in a passionate kiss.

One that neither wants to end for quite some time.


Heh, this chapter was quite a lot of fun to write. I was so tempted to rewrite my previous oneshot "Rules for Dating Kai" here, but I thought Miguel would be too cool to be phased by any of that X3

Please review.