Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters associated with the series, and I've yet to understand why this has to be on everything posted on this site. Really, I'm going to forget to do this at least once because I usually don't do this on other sites.
Because we totally know how Ray's love life ends on every season in the Anime. Go back and check them out, at least in season 2 I can point out it was totally legit that it was not meant to be XD I'm horrible, but I am a Ray fan, although my number one is Kai and I want this story to go back to him with a vengeance.
Hope you all enjoy the quick updates, and it's the first of the month. P.S. I update depending on the reviews, I really do.
Ray hadn't noticed Aoi had followed him until it was too late to tell her to return, to tell her to stay away from him for the remainder of the day, at least for the remainder of the evening, because he knew she would not be up to greet him when he returned. For the past nights she had been going early to bed, and now that he knew why, he couldn't bare watch her follow Kai into the shared bedroom. But the young girl had no plans of letting him go as easily as he first thought, and she was reaching for his hand like she always did.
He flinched away from her touch, feeling physically hurt, burned by those icy fingers that told him just how long she had been chasing after him as the sun set. His reaction caused Aoi's hand to retreat, slowly, but surely to her chest. Her eyes shone with worry and hurt for what he had done, and he felt the pain in his chest grow as she looked away confused. He really did want to lift her into his arms and run away. Run away from everything, with only Aoi by his side. It would be so easy for him to take her right now.
"Are you cold?" He asked, too affected by her rosy cheeks and large blue eyes to try and ignore her. He had wanted to leave her behind to cool down his thoughts, but he couldn't leave her there on the streets alone. That was how the two have met, unbeknownst to the others; Aoi shivering in the dark cold streets of china. She had been a toddler then, and Ray was sure she couldn't remember him.
Aoi shook her head 'no'. She wasn't trembling because of the cold, he recognized, she was trembling out of . . . fear? No, that couldn't be it, could it? There was absolutely no way Aoi would ever be scared of him. There was no reason for her to ever fear him.
"Aoi." He said in the kindest voice he could mustered, his eyes looking into Aoi blue ones pleadingly as he reached out a hand to her. "Do you want to come with me?"
Ray waited patiently; hand outstretched towards the small girl, a sincere smile on his face that didn't quite reach his each, but Aoi couldn't know that. He only had to wait a few second before his smile turned into a grin and his eyes shone like a second sun: Aoi had taken his hand with a shy smile.
He was over joyed that she no longer looked fearful and that she had taken his hand like she had always done. Her smile grew bigger and her eyes shone brighter and for a moment as they walked into a nearby park, he had actually believed he had shoved out any thoughts Aoi had of Ka. But, of course, he was wrong.
"Why do you want to hurt Kai?"
His smile faltered, but he made sure he didn't lose it, for Aoi's sake. He squeezed her small hand tighter, covering it completely with his as he moved towards the swing-set not far off. Aoi's eyes watched him carefully, her feline-like stare filled with curiosity, filled with only one question: why did he no longer like Kai?
"Aoi, I don't want to hurt Kai, but," he gave a deep sigh, "But I can't sit around and let him do to you one of the worst things a man can ever do to a girl. His actions were a spur of the moment, Aoi, and he didn't even think about how it would affect you. He's just playing with you!"
She watched him, stepping closer to him as she peered into his face and completely ignored the swing she had been about to sit on. Her blue eyes told him that she didn't quite understand what he meant by Kai having done something bad, and to her, playing had a very different definition than Ray. She probably thought he was using it wrong or that he mistook their actions for something else. Maybe she thought what she had been doing with Kai was indeed playing.
His eyes sadden for the briefest moment before they filled with determination as he looked at his small girl. Aoi gave him a sweet smile, and that is all he needed to go through with his thoughts. He pulled her by the hand and led her away from the park back into the sidewalk, but where could he take her? Surely not back to the hotel where he was sure Kai would snatch her up and lock her behind closed doors. No, he would take her else where, opposite of that place where the danger was.
They walked hand in hand down the street, by passing everything that had caught Aoi's eyes when they had first arrived. She knew they were going the wrong way if they wanted to reach the hotel, but Ray was smiling and laughing and she didn't want that to end. He had stopped talking about Kai, ignoring the topic completely, which Aoi thought it was a good thing. Still, she didn't know where Ray was taking her to or if he meant to keep her out all night. The sun had set and they were still out, which was against the BBA's rules when on tour.
"We're not staying there tonight." He told her with a smile when she had asked, wrapping and arm around her shoulder and hugging her close to his body. "I don't think I can stay any longer with the group if we have to share a room. So, I booked another room in a smaller place."
"You don't want to be with the team any more, Ray?" Her eyes grew sad, but he only smiled and squeezed her closer as they neared a small inn. The man behind the counter greeted Ray with a smile and waved him off as he passed by. "Are you staying here tonight? Can I stay too?"
That was the plan.
He led her towards the last room to the left of the hallway and opened the door for her before walking in himself. The room could not compare to the five star hotel of the BBA; there was only one bed, a television, and one seat. Farther into the room, where Aoi had headed to first, was the bathroom. A very cramp shower, Aoi called out, with squeaky faucets and small complementary shampoo.
Maybe he should call the guys and let them know Aoi was alright and that she wouldn't be returning for the night, but Kai was there. If given a hint as to where she might be, Ray was sure Kai would come steal her away in a blink of an eye. He thought against informing them, but ended up calling the receptionist of the hotel so she would let them know they wouldn't be returning. Aoi, all the while, was jumping on the bed with a smile on her face, thinking that after tonight everything would be the same as before.
"Aoi." Ray sat on the edge of the bed, holding her hand to stop her from jumping. She looked down on him with a grin before jump one last time to end up sitting beside him. There was only one way to take, and likely the reason she followed him and forgot. "Do you love Kai?"
"Yes!" She answered with a cheerful grin and a nod.
"Why?" Aoi stopped smiling and looked at him, watched him intensely. She was waiting for him to explain himself, but how clearer could that question be? "Why do you say you love Kai, Aoi? I need to know why it is that you love him and not someone else in the group. Why does it have to be him?"
"But I love you, too, Ray."
"No, you don't!"
He had known Aoi for a long time and understood just how naïve the girl was, and the innocent way she thought of things. To her, the love she had for them came from them being teammates, being friends, and she couldn't make the distinction of love and being in love, and maybe he was a horrible person for taking advantage of this. Hell, he knew he was a bad person and that there was no going back once he had Aoi pinned to the bed beneath him, her arms held up over her head by her wrists, and his face half an inch away from hers.
Aoi laid paralyzed beneath him, not moving and inch as her bright blue eyes looked into Ray's golden ones with an expression she had never seen on him before. The soft raise and fall of her chest was the only indication to Ray that the girl didn't fear him, although he held her prisoner with one hand. He wondered if it had been this way for Kai the first night he laid hands on her; her blue eyes studying his every expression, his every movement, but did nothing to break away and flee.
"Aoi," his voice was soft, fitting of those eyes filled with hurt, "why couldn't it have been me?!"
He had once dreamed of this moment. Long ago when Aoi entered her teen years, Ray had woken up with a flushed face and with his heart threatening to rip out of his chest. Back then he wrote it of as just a dream, something with a different meaning than what it was portraying, but having Aoi beneath his body, his lips pressed to hers firmly, he could only see that dream as a prediction. A warning of what was to come as the years went by, and he couldn't help but think Kai had been right. He wouldn't have let Aoi leave China and return to Mr. Dickinson, because he would have monopolized her like Kai was doing.
Ray felt her body shivering as he parted her lips with his tongue and explored her mouth, his memory going back to that distant dream and thinking that it didn't compare to what it really felt to have Aoi in his arms. She was small and soft and tasted sweet, as sweet as candy, and her cool body felt great pressed up against his burning one. He began to inch his hand up her body, starting from her knee, up her thigh, and moving slowly to outline her body until his hand rested on her neck. It was only then that he parted lips with her, tilted her head to the side, and traced her neck with nips and kisses, feeling her tremble in response, hearing a soft whimper.
Her sweater was beginning to become of nuisance to him. He wanted to feel the same cool temperature he felt from her hands, her cheeks, and her neck, but fully flushed against his own skin. With a single hand, he pulled her sweater up and over her head, removing his hands from around her wrists only for a second to be able to get it off. He threw it to the ground and returned to his position over Aoi, still pinning her arms over her head, listing her shirt to reveal her pale white stomach, and laying kissing on every bare inch of skin he uncovered. She squirmed beneath him, soft noises coming from her lips as he kissed up her exposed stomach and stopping an inch away from her chest. She had begun to move more forcefully, her arms trying to pull free, and her breathing coming faster.
Ray jumped up from her, landing on his feet off of the bed where Aoi had begun to sit up. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she rubbed them with the back of her hands. Her voice couldn't be heard to the hiccupping that came when she tried to speak. Her body was trembling from the cool air of the vents that touched the bare skin of her semi-bare torso, or from having someone almost 'ravish' her as Tyson and put it. But, she thought, Ray hadn't meant to do any of that forcefully, and it hadn't necessary felt forced on her either.
"Aoi." She felt his arms wrap around her, holding her head firmly on his chest as she cried. She could hear his heart beats, too many to count in a minute. "I'm so sorry! I don't know what—I didn't mean to—I . . . I'm sorry."
He held her in his arm until she exhausted herself, falling asleep as she would have if he hadn't of done anything. The difference was, her eyes were stained, red and puffy from crying and her breathing still help a couple of hiccups. Her body also trembled when pressed against him and so Ray left her to sleep on her own on the bed as he took the couch, no matter how small and uncomfortable sleeping there would be.
He was no Kai, he reasoned. No doubt Kai could bypass Aoi's tears, ignore them completely, and continue on to what he wanted to do. But Ray wasn't like that, and he couldn't bare love her if it meant hurting her to the point of tears. She had been scared of him, although he had made sure not to use force or violence or anything that would be alarming and fearful to her. Yet, she had still been scared of him.
Ray cursed. He had been stilling on the small couch for hours replaying the scene over and over in his mind to try and understand why it was that Aoi had been scared of him touching her, and yet, Kai had easily taken her without her as much as batting an eyelash. No one would have ever known Kai had been sleeping with Aoi if he hadn't of caught them, and even then Aoi didn't seem to think of it a big deal and went on as she normally would. Ray feared this time, Aoi wouldn't act the same. She would avoid him like the plague, no doubt, or maybe she would run back into Kai's arms and he would deal with his girl's fears.
He had yet to clear his thoughts when a commotion broke out in the hallway. Loud footsteps and yells filling the small hotel seconds before the door to the room was kicked open with enough force that it hit the wall and rose the small girl in bed. Her sweater was still on the ground, her hair was a mess, and her shirt was stretched and loose and feel around her shoulders to reveal several marks that had not been there the day before. They were redder, more continuous than the other, and less vicious markings, but still kiss marks none the less, and not from her current lover that was now standing in the doorway.
Kai's heated glare could melt iron, but his glare was no directed at Ray. It was directed at the small bundle of covers sitting on the bed with dark circles on her eyes and hoarse throat for having cried the larger part of the night. She couldn't even speak when Kai walked to the bed and yanked her off, dragging her across the room and out of the hotel before Ray could react and shove away the manager that was threating to through him out.
He shouldn't even go after her, he thought. Aoi felt she was better off with Kai than with him, so he should just let her make her own mistakes and learn from them. She was still sixteen, after all, and should be able to figure out what was destroying her without others having to constantly throw it at her face. They would just have to watch her fall and see if she still had enough strength left to pick herself up, because they sure weren't going to be there to do it for her, and he'd had enough of this.