Finals in a little more than two weeks of school days. The light at the end of the tunnel is back on, folks.

In story news, this has a little more swearing than usual, and Michael jumps off the deep end.

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Again. I do not own Beyblade. Evidence: Current bank account balance = $0.00. Yeah.


Broken Valentine

"No, wait, stop! You can't do that!"

Michael looked defiantly at the nurse and tore off the last of the tape securing the IV. Without a word, he pulled out the needle and dropped it, watching it swing for a moment under the bag before returning his attention to the door. The slim, mousy woman now staring at him in horror gasped again as he pushed the blanket off of his legs and stood up, slightly unsteady from the medication and the gunshot wounds on his hip and thigh.

He ignored the nurse's cries for someone to stop him as he limped down the hallway. It had all come back to him in the night--Kevin's insolence, his ungrateful behavior after Michael had worked so hard to pay Kevin's hospital bills from the accident that Kevin had so foolishly stumbled into. I wouldn't be surprised if he did it on purpose just to spite me, Michael thought bitterly, no longer able to feel the burning sensation in his thigh from the wound. He couldn't feel anything but rage. Pure rage.

And then, Bryan... He had stolen Kevin. The bastard had shot him and then stolen Michael's property. Kevin was his. No one else's, especially not that son of a bitch Bryan Kuznetsov.

He growled as his mind coursed over the three days he had spent in the hospital, and hit the night before like a pothole in his mental track. In the middle of the night, Kai had slipped into his room. He had bit out a terse warning before slipping back out of the room, not stopping to listen to the drug-confused reply.

"Stay away from Kevin, Michael. If I catch you anywhere near him, Spencer and I will not hesitate to beat you to a pulp. And I shudder to think of what Bryan would do to you."

He growled again at the memory of what Kai had said. Fine, then. If he couldn't have Kevin, then no one could.


Kevin blinked heavily and mumbled something even he couldn't comprehend.

"Hey, Kevin," someone off to his left whispered.

He blinked again--one, two, three seconds before opening his eyes--and rolled his head to look. "Rei...?"

In response, Rei smiled with a mixture of relief and fatigue and shifted from his chair to the bed. "You're okay," he whispered, more to himself, and pulled Kevin into a tight hug.

"Rei...?"

He pulled away slightly and laughed breathily at the confusion on his friend's face. "You're so lucky, you know that?"

Kevin lowered his eyes with a guilty sigh. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice slightly raw still. "I... I..."

"Shhh, it's okay. All that matters is that you're safe now. Bryan got to you in time, you're okay..." He buried his face in Kevin's shoulder again.

"Bryan...? He..."

Rei pulled away again and ran a slightly trembling hand through Kevin's hair, offering a small, reassuring smile. Through the haze of drugs and half-consciousness, Kevin was reminded vaguely of his earliest memories of his mom.

"You called him before you passed out, remember? He got you from your house after you passed out and brought you here."

"He... He did?" Kevin bit his lip and looked down at the sheets covering his legs again.

"Yeah. He's been here almost the whole three days you've been out. ...He's really worried about you, Kevin."

Whether as a side effect of the drugs or a product of the stress he had been under, Kevin felt tears sting the corners of his eyes. He leaned forward and pressed the bridge of his nose into Rei's shoulder. "I'm sorry, okay? I know everyone's worried about me, and I feel so guilty about it, and I don't want anyone to worry because when they do I feel so helpless and like I can't take care of myself, and...and..." The rest of the muffled apology was lost under a choking sob.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Rei whispered, rubbing Kevin's back. "We just want you to be safe. I wish you would've talked to me or someone and let us help sooner, but it happened the way it happened, and I'm just happy you're safe again. I'm never letting you go through something like this ever, ever again..."

Kevin choked on another sob and weakly pressed his nose into Rei's collarbone.

The door opened with a quiet squeak, followed by the quiet tapping of steel-toed boots on the linoleum floor around the bed. A weight sank onto the other edge of the bed. Kevin sniffled and lifted his head a fraction of an inch.

"Hey, Kai," Rei said quietly, still rubbing Kevin's back with one hand while he reached over Kevin's legs and laced his fingers into Kai's.

"Hey, babe," Kai murmured back, leaning over to kiss his boyfriend. "Nice to see you awake, Kevin."

"Kai..." Kevin buried his face back in Rei's shoulder.

"How d'you feel, kid?"

"Crummy. My shoulder hurts," he complained wearily.

Kai nodded slowly. "Yeah, Bryan said your shoulder looked like it had been dislocated."

"Ouch," Kevin said dispassionately, his head still on Rei's shoulder. "Hate it when that happens."

Raising an eyebrow, Kai asked, "It's happened before?"

Rei smiled dismissively, squeezing his boyfriend's hand to get his attention. "He fell out of the top of a tree when we were younger. The impact when he hit the ground was enough to jar it out of its socket."

"Damn."

"Yeah." Kevin closed his eyes and sighed. "It sucked."

Kai chuckled, covering it with a cough at a stern look from Rei.

"Did you get Bryan to go home?" Rei changed the subject with a meaningful look.

"No," Kai sighed, glaring at Kevin's knees. "The bastard is insisting on staying with him."

Kevin blinked his eyes half-open with interest. "He's still here?"

"Unfortunately. I'm trying to get him to go back to the apartment and get some sleep."

"Can I talk to him?"


Hey, I said Rei was maternal.

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