Rim: I finally decided to stop being stingy and let you all have this chapter. And I would like you all to welcome the newest, and most sensual player to the game. You ask who? Just read on and tell me what you think. I'm now going to watch Penn & Teller's: Bullshit now, one of the greatest shows to ever come around in the last few years.

-oooooo-

Chapter 9

Kenny stared at where Tyson was playing a game of Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter with Rei at an arcade machine. Max, scarily enough, was down racing some kids from their school in the go carts. The very thought of the sugar high blonde behind the wheel of anything brought a chill down Kenny's spine. It was bad enough Max was partially insane, but allowing him free range to go as fast as he wanted on a course…

"What's wrong, Kenny?" Rei questioned, tilting his head to the side to see a shudder roll down his friend's spine.

"Just thinking about how many people are going to die when Max gets his license," Kenny replied. The remark brought a laugh out of Rei, who turned his attention back to Tyson trying to perform an aerial combo with Spiderman.

"I can agree with you, I'm going to be hesitant to ride anywhere with him when he has a driving permit," Rei nodded, blocking the attack. Rolling the joystick counter clockwise and pressing the hard punch button, he had Ryu perform a hadoken, sending Spiderman flying back to the other side of the screen.

"You cheap fireball throwing bastard," Tyson growled.

"Oh, and what about your backing me into a corner then web shooting repeatedly tactics?" Rei responded.

"I was not holding you in the corner. Every time I came close to you, you would hit me with a fireball," Tyson argued. "I only held you in the corner once."

"You are so full of it Tyson," Rei scoffed, bringing out Captain America to do a tag team special, depleting the rest of Spiderman's energy and sending him flying off screen as Chun Li came onscreen.

"Ah! You killed Spiderman!" Tyson screamed, drawing a few bystanders' attention to the heated match that was going on. "You are going to pay for that. Once I get Ryu out the way, it'll just be me, you, Chun Li, and Captain America. And then you will beg for my mercy."

"Oh, we will see Tyson," Rei smirked.

"Hey, what's up with those two?" Max walked up drinking a large soda.

"Done killing pedestrians and old people?" Rei teased. Looking out the corner of his eyes, he watched Max frown, his bottom lip jutting out.

"Very funny Rei," Max laughed sarcastically. "For your information, I can drive just fine."

"In your mind, you mean?" Tyson voiced.

"Oh shut up, both of you," Max glowered, before turning his attention to Kenny leaning against the wall. "You believe I can drive, don't you, Kenny?"

"Well…" Kenny started. "I'm sure you would know not to hit pedestrians and old people." For a long second, things were silent. That was until Tyson and Rei burst out in laughter; Max glowered at the brunette who simply smiled.

"With friends like you, I certainly don't need to look elsewhere for insults. Fine, since you're all such comedians, then you'll have to drag me off the DDR machine once more. I was going to go peacefully this time, but all deals are off!" Max stated, walking away from the two laughing boys on the arcade machine and brunette who continued to smile.

"Do you think we should stop him?" Kenny suggested.

"No, let him vent all he wants. We can just leave him if he won't come peacefully," Rei shook his head.

"Hey, Kenny, I've been meaning to ask you," Tyson said, continuing his match with Rei. "What was up with Mister Hiwatari today? He was in a bitchy mood the entire class period like he was PMSing or something. What happened to him during lunch?"

"He was fine until Vice Principal told him he had a visitor in the teacher's lounge. When he came back for class he was what we saw in class. Whatever occurred is beyond me," Kenny shrugged. He was just as curious to know what happened, but it wasn't his place to intrude into his friend's affairs. If Kai wanted to tell him what transpired, he would do so eventually.

"I didn't know you were friendly with Mister Hiwatari, Kenny," Rei said. "He's one of the most popular teachers in the school from what I hear."

"They talk a lot sometimes during lunch periods," Tyson announced.

"Is he as cool as some of the students in his other classes say?" Rei asked.

"He's the devil," Tyson swore.

"I would like an opinion other than your own, Tyson," Rei smiled, blocking another one of Tyson's moves before executing one of Ryu's supers, taking Chun Li's energy down to the last leg just as the clock ran to zero, announcing him the winner.

"You evil whore," Tyson glowered.

"How about you two stop with the rivalry and we make sure that Max doesn't handcuff himself to a DDR machine?" Kenny proposed pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against.

"That sounds like a plan," Rei nodded, moving away from the arcade machine. "So, tell me, what's Mister Hiwatari like?"

"You've never had him for a teacher have you?" Tyson questioned, moving from the arcade machine to follow the two. "I'm telling you Rei, there is nothing great about the man. He's the devil. He won't let me enjoy my naps and is always asking me these difficult questions he knows I can't answer."

"Maybe if you studied and didn't sleep through class," Kenny sighed. "Mister Hiwatari's a great teacher. He cares a lot about all his students, especially the lazy ones like you Tyson Kinomiya. Not to mention he has an infinite amount of patience."

"Dealing with Tyson…" Rei started, a smile creeping into the corner of his mouth where a fang popped through. "One has to have something of the sort."

"You know…one day you're going to have to stop that," Tyson said, rubbing his arms. "You're giving me goose bumps again. You know I hate that smile."

It was creepy when the black hair Chinese male did that, bear in mind his canines were longer than most people by nature, so when he smiled one of his trademark fang grins, an eerie sort of chill shot down your spine. Expecting the fanged boy to pounce any second onto the unsuspecting person and chomp down on them. Tyson use to poke fun at Rei being part tiger due to the fangs and eyes, incidentally, the night Rei pretended to be possessed by the spirit of a white tiger offered him a valuable lesson in leaving the dark haired young man alone about his quirks.

"Well too bad Tyson, I can't change myself because you don't like my teeth," Rei grinned again, the other fang poking out from the other side of his mouth.

"Yes you can, get those things filed down," Tyson shuddered.

"Ignoring Tyson, let's get back to Mister Hiwatari. I heard he graduated out of state somewhere with a Bachelor's in English," Rei said.

"We really haven't talked about where he graduated from. We're always discussing literature and stuff," Kenny said. "He even reads my father's books too."

"You finally found someone on your level, Kenny," Rei said. "It's great that you can finally talk to someone whose actually on the same level as you without you having to dumb yourself down for them."

"Why does that sound like that comment was directed at me?" Tyson grumbled.

"Maybe it was," Rei grinned, flashing off his fangs.

"Will you stop that?" Tyson complained. "I swear you're creeping me out."

"So, does Mister Hiwatari talk about himself a lot, or is he one of those types who isn't comfortable telling about himself? From what I've seen, he's a really open teacher with his students," Rei said.

"He's not as private about himself as you would think. I haven't learned a lot about him yet, but of course most of our time is talk about poets and other literature," Kenny smiled. "It's fun to talk to him and eventually learn out things that he likes and doesn't like and how growing up was for him."

"That was back in the fifth century, right," Tyson laughed.

"If I was your teacher and ever heard that, you would never pass, Tyson," Rei joked.

"I feel like I'm not going to pass as it is, don't jinx me. Let's just go make sure that a certain blonde doesn't proclaim himself king of the DDR again," Tyson stated.

-oooo-

Kai was beyond the limit of being bored. To say the least, he had fallen into a bottomless pit of ennui as he stood against one of the large pillars in the hall which his grandfather's party was being held. The old man always rented out some expensive place to show off all who came just how well off he was, more than wanting to show his guests a good time. Kai couldn't say this method was his style; 'the rich' as he should put it made games of things like this while a normal person would be satisfied with the amount of people that showed up.

Looking around, he spotted his grandfather conversing with a group of ladies and gentlemen of his age group, the more younger businessmen and women roaming here and there looking self important. There was another group of men and women his age somewhere around he was trying his best to stir clear of. Among that group, half of the women were possible targets which would be flung at him by his grandfather in hopes of turning him straight, so Kai could marry a nice girl. Because it wasn't going to happen, he found it so much easier to appear uninterested in socializing.

"You know, that frown doesn't suit you at all, Kai Hiwatari," a voice replied from Kai's left. Turning his head to the side, Kai's mouth almost dropped open before he reinforced his composure. Walking up to him was not only someone he knew well from his college days, but was the one person that he tried to have a serious relationship with before it fell apart two weeks later.

A young man equal in height to Kai with wild orange hair pulled back into a ponytail positioned himself more than a little close to Kai. Bright aqueous green eyes trailed over Kai, a sensual smile pulling from one corner of the man's mouth to the other. Despite the formal attire he wore, nothing about this man's sheer sexual aura had faded since last they saw each other. More than one of their many times together were spent in bed, satisfying an overabundant sexual appetite fueled by--actually Kai had no idea why he spent most of his time engaged in animalistic sex with this man other than the reason they were physically attracted to each other.

"Brooklyn Masefield, it's nice to see you again," Kai inclined his head to his ex, moving to put some space between them. The action brought a chuckle from the wild haired man, moving even closer to Kai than before.

"There's no reason for you to be nervous around me, Kai," Brooklyn grinned. "It's not like we're strangers. We know more about each other than anyone could know."

"Intimately," Kai corrected. "We're practically strangers on all other levels, Brooklyn."

"It's the same thing to me," Brooklyn shrugged. "They say sometimes the best way to get to know someone is sexually. The way they make love tells more about that person than words ever could."

"That's not true all the time," Kai argued, looking away from the man who was too close to him. He was over Brooklyn completely, but it seemed his body did not forget one second of intimate touching which transpired between them. A fire wanted to react to the ample sexual energy crackling around the red head, however Kai's self control won out, reminding him that if he opened that door once again, the only thing he had to look forward to was a repeat of their past. When Kai came to a realization one morning after an entire night of wild sex with Brooklyn that there was no real spark between them beyond the sex. Even Brooklyn had not denied it, their breakup was a passing moment.

"In our case it was," Brooklyn grinned, slipping a hand down the spine of Kai's back, causing a chill to rumble through his nerves. "Your body is still sensitive to my touch, Kai, even after all this time. I heard you weren't in a relationship after we broke up."

"That doesn't mean you can return yourself into my life. What are you doing here anyway?" Kai interrupted, receiving another throaty laugh from the male beside him.

"It so happens I was invited to come by my employer who is an acquaintance to your grandfather. I figured if I came, I would be able to see you again. What have you been doing with yourself since last I saw you," Brooklyn questioned.

"I'm an English teacher at a high school," Kai replied.

"You're a teacher?" Brooklyn blinked. "I would have never thought that you would actually go through with that teaching thing. I suppose you really don't need the money considering you're in your grandfather's will."

"I'm a teacher because I like teaching, Brooklyn. Not because I need a hobby," Kai said, turning his eyes on his former boyfriend. "I have plenty of students that I enjoy teaching to." At that comment, the image of his young brunette friend popped into his head, a gentle smile curving the corners of his mouth into the most adorable smile Kai could ever imagine.

"You seem to have a particular student which you really like to teach to," Brooklyn analyzed.

"What?" Kai came out of his thoughts.

"Your eyes changed when you said that. I'm presume there's a particular student who has caught your attention. I would have never figured you like them young," Brooklyn stated.

"It's not like that," Kai argued. "He's a very good friend, one of my most brightest students. I would never distract him from his studies by getting into a relationship with him. His future is one of the most important things to me."

"Even while you're saying this, a part of you wants to keep him for yourself. Anyone who looks into your eyes can see it, Kai. You're the type of person who doesn't get involved with someone unless you see something in them that fits--"

"It's not like before," Kai interjected. "Even if I like him, he's still a minor and he's a good friend. I'm not jeopardizing his future for my selfish needs."

"If you like him?" Brooklyn gave another throaty laugh, leaning down towards Kai's ear. He allowed his breath to tickled the outer contour of the dual haired male's ear, lowering his voice a few degrees until it was a husky whisper. "I doubt your heart actually believes that load of bullshit your mouth is spouting. I believe you're just afraid to see what will happen if you open your heart up to someone again."

Kai opened his mouth, only to close it again as Brooklyn moved away from him. The smile on the red head's face was still intact, if not growing more than a few millimeters on each side. Kai turned his eyes away from Brooklyn, staring out at the crowd of people who were oblivious to the conversation that was going on. He had nothing to say, not because it was true, but because there was nothing he would be able to say that Brooklyn wouldn't counter.

"Maybe one day when I have some free time, I'll stop by your school and find out what this kid is like. Just make certain you wait the two years when he's legal. I don't want to see your case brought to the firm, they won't let me take the case because I have personal ties to you," Brooklyn grinned, leaning down to quickly peck Kai on the lips before anyone notice, then walking away. Kai had a feeling from the tips of his toes to the top strands of his hair that this wasn't over by any stretch of thought.