Disclaimer: I don't own so don't sue me. No spiders were harmed in the making of this fanfic.
Little A Granger, Tyka's Flower, adbhut, miniJkitty and Angel Devastation for all the kind reviews. It's been a hell of a week for me, so sorry for the late update.
No warnings for this chapter, so you guys can continue enjoying the fluff :)
When morning came, the duo had 2 missions: To get their stuff back and finish the damn scavenger hunt. Right now the pair would do anything if it meant they didn't spent another night on the cold, hard ground; Their backs were stiff and they had woken up with various bug bites all over their bodies. Once they had gotten up and done their morning piss, Kai pulled out the scavenger sheet he had kept safe in his breast pocket.
"Find the next sticker near deep water. Man walks over, man walks under, in times of war he burns asunder...Where's the bridge Kinomiya?"
"Damn, you're good at those. The bridge should be over there." he pointed to the right and they began walking. However, when they arrived at their destination, they had discovered that it had been cut down. Tyson fumed. "This is just playing fucking dirty! Now what?"
Kai squinted and on the other side, he saw the note they were searching for attached to a tree. He looked around and frowned when he couldn't find a tree tall enough to get them across. A thought occurred to him and he looked at his companion. "Kinomiya, you think you could use the wind to tear the paper off and carry it over here?"
"We're about to find out." Tyson said with a determined expression on his face. He stepped forward and closed his eyes in concentration. He then opened them and smiled. "No, I'm going to do something else." The mischievous glint in his eye was the only warning Kai got before Tyson grabbed his arm and started running towards the cliff.
"TYSON ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"Just trust me Kai!" the Russian tightened his grip as they jumped off the ledge, shutting his eyes waiting for impact. When it never came, he slowly reopened them.
They were flying! Actually flying! He looked at the Wind Master in shock. "I told you to trust me." said the child, with a cocky grin. With a grace Kai didn't know the boy possessed, he landed them on the other side of the gorge. Tyson calmly walked up to the tree and pulled out a pink sticker and walked over to the still-in-shock Hiwatari. "Kai, paper please." Kai shook himself out of his stupor and handed him the sheet and Tyson placed a sticker next to the number 3. "I have no sword, I have no spear, yet rule a horde many fear. My soldiers will fight with a wicked sting, I rule with might but am no King." Tyson read, scratching his head. "A queen?"
Kai smiled. "Not just any queen- A Queen Bee."
"So Ming Ming or Julia?" snicker Tyson.
The older's lips curled in amusement. "Please, they couldn't control an army if they tried. Actual bees though, I know they could frighten the toughest of men. Happen to know where any beehives are?"
Tyson sighed. "First spiders, now bees...nature sucks."
"So this would be a bad time to tell you there is a spider in your hair?"
"No Kai, this would be the best time- SPIDER IN MY HAIR?!" the boy shook and ran his fingers through his hair viciously, trying to get the unwanted guest out. When Kai saw the critter retreat deeper into the mass of blue, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
"Don't move." The sharpness in his voice made Tyson freeze on one foot. He walked over. "You scared it into hiding."
"I scared it?"
"Zip it or I'll leave it there." The teen instantly quieted.
A weird sensation came over Tyson as Kai looked at his hair intensely, calloused fingers carefully lifting sections of hair. It felt so soothing to him, and despite there being one of God's most unholy and horrifying creatures on his scalp, he felt himself relaxing into the man's touch. All too soon, the hands were pulled away. Kai revealed not one, but two spiders; they sat in his hand as Tyson peered at them with disgust.
"You have no idea how lucky you are." gasped Kai, pointing to the larger brown spider which appeared to have large yellow prickles protruding from its abdomen. "This one is a wolf spider, and if you look closely, those aren't spots. Those are baby spiders. If you had crushed her, the babies would've jumped off her back and crawled into your hair."
Tyson looked at the spider, then back at Kai as all colour drained from his face. "H-How many spiders is that?"
"A hundred."
Brown eyes rolled back into Tyson's head as he fainted.
Kai sighed. Tyson was too emotional. He gently placed the spiders on the ground and picked up the unconscious boy and threw him over his shoulder. He kept his eyes peeled for bees as he trudged through the woods. As the burden on his shoulder slowly became heavy and heavier as the hour ticked by, the Russian decided he would just discreetly removed any other unwanted guests, so the other wouldn't flip out again, even if it did give him the excuse to be close to Tyson.
"Kai! Hey Kai!"
Said person spun around in the direction of the familiar voice and saw Max and Ray. "Hn."
"Hey Kai, we think we-" Max paused and pointed to Tyson. "Woah, what happened?"
"Sleeping Beauty saw a spider." he said rolling his eyes. "Continue."
"Really? Best not to tell him I have a pet tarantula at my mom's then." Both of the other teens looked at him like he sprouted a second head.
"You?!"
"Yeah, her name is Nancy. Real sweetheart. But anyways, did you guys get anything jacked by any chance?"
Kai blinked. "Yeah. Why?"
"Thought so, only Tyson would have beyblade underwear." The trio chuckled at their friend's questionable fashion tastes. "We ran into Ian and Johnny and noticed they had a bunch of tents and equipment. We took a closer look, and when we saw some clothes that looked like Tyson's, we waited for them to leave and took back the stuff we thought was yours, hoping we'd run into you eventually."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "How generous of you."
"Consider it a 'Thank-you' for letting Max and I do some serious training with you. That, and we don't like cheaters, oh suspicious one." said Ray with a cheeky grin.
"Hn, can you blame me?"
"No, but we're like family. No one messes with family." said Max brightly as he took off the heavy bag he was carrying and handed it to Kai. "Here you go bud!"
Taking the offered bag, he put it on his other shoulder, grateful that the weight was balancing him out a bit. "Thanks. Have you seen any beehives anywhere?"
"No, we're looking for one ourselves." said the Chinese man. "If you want you're more than welcome to join us, an extra pair of eyes would be awesome."
Kai weighed his options. While he could go off by himself, they did have a point about a third set of eyes, and with the extra weight slowing him down they would cover a lot more ground before nightfall. Plus there was that other 'issue'. "Fine."
"Here, want me to take the bag for you?" offered Max.
"Need any help repositioning Tyson?" asked Ray.
Kai sighed, he forgot that Tyson wasn't the only mother hen in the group. He relinquished the bag and Ray helped him reposition Tyson so he was carrying him piggyback style. His right shoulder immediately felt better.
The trio hiked up the mountain, looking along the treeline looking for some sign of the yellow and black insects. About an hour later, a low groan caught their attention. "Wha? What happened?" came Tyson's groggy voice.
Kai put the teenager on the ground and Tyson gathered his barrings. "Ray? Max? What are you doing here?"
"Hey, how's 'Sleeping Beauty'?" joked Max.
"Feeling like I got hit with a truck." the bluenette moaned. "What happened?"
"You fainted, we met up with Kai and we're looking for a beehive together."
Tyson's memory came back to him. "AH! The spiders! Are they gone?!" he started yanking his hair in panic.
"Awe, did the teeny-weeny spiders scare the big, bad World Champion?" mocked Max.
"Hey, even you would be freaked out if one wrong move could crush one, unleashing hundreds of the satanic, little beasts all over you!"
Ray and Max shuddered. "Yeah that would be unpleasant." agreed the nekojin.
"Hey! Are we gonna stand here all day? Move it!" they all turned towards to the Phoenix Master, who was already at the top of the hill waiting for them, his scarf flowing majestically in the soft breeze.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't get your ripcord in a twist Sourpuss, we're coming!" called Tyson.
Max and Ray smiled as the feeling of nostalgia swept through them. It really did feel like they were a team again. The four them had a bond that could never be broken. Not after everything they had been through together.
Further up the trail, they saw about five different teams battling. Metal against metal, sparks flew as bitbeasts battled in the air. Kai saw the hive in a tall tree on their left, and it all made sense. He pulled the group into the bushes. "They're fighting for the hive."
Ray was the first to clue in. "So you think we should just take the envelope and run."
"I like it." nodded Max
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" grinned Tyson, as he put a hand on the Chinese man's shoulder. "Good luck Ray! We'll meet you on the other side!"
"W-wait. Why me?"
Tyson blinked. "You're the best jumper/tree-climber." Kai and Max murmured in agreement.
The Drigger-holder sighed in defeat. "Alright. Let's do this."
After making sure the ever-growing mob of bladers were distracted, the former bladebreakers snucked across the path and Ray started climbing what had to be a 100ft tree. Doing a mix of climbing and jumping from branch to branch, the nekojin slowly made his way up the old oak tree. Stopping only to wipe the sweat off his brow, he soon came to the branch with the hive on it. Now came the tricky part - removing the note off the hive. Keeping himself calm, he reached out. A noise from below made him pause and he looked down, much to his annoyance, Mystel staring climbing up the tree at a super-fast pace, obviously having the same idea. He had to do this fast. Steeling his nerves, he calmly reached out to the swaying beehive and slowly removed the envelope and smirked in triumph. He grabbed 2 purple stars and started making his way back down. About mid-way he met up with Mystel, and gave him the envelope with a wink, the boy was surprised, but only nodded in thanks. They climbed down together and Ray rejoined his friends.
They watched in amusement as Mystel got the attention of the battling teams, waving the letter in his hand. The mob quickly turned into a stampede as they chased the spikey, blonde-haired teen through the forest.
"He's so leading them into a trap." chuckled Max.
"Good, six less teams to worry about." said Kai. "This is where we part ways, Kon."
Max and Tyson looked at each other crestfallen.
"Yeah...good lucky buddy." said Max sadly.
The friends shook hands and much to Tyson's surprise, the American handed him their stuff. When he put two-and-two together, he gave the blonde a huge hug. "You're the best."
"It was your weird underwear Ty! I couldn't let their cuteness blind anyone else!" he laughed.
"Yeah well, I'll be rescuing all dishes from your mustard assault!"
"You have no idea what you're missing out on, bud!"
"My nose begs to differ. Good luck Maxie! See ya Ray!" he called out as they parted ways. "So what does the next riddle say?"
Kai pulled out the sticker Ray had given him and put it next to the number 4, before reading the fifth riddle. "A horde of gold. So many treasures hold. No guards, no wards. Prised by bards. But no merchant will except it. Cause as payment it doesn't fit. But still Chauntea refills it every year. Now what it is should be clear!" he blinked then scowled. "Yeah, clear as mud."
Tyson looked at him in alarm. "What do you mean, you don't know?!"
"Not yet. I need to think." He looked up and to his dismay he saw orange skies. "Come on, we need to set up camp."
Tyson looked at the setting sun. "Yeah." his stomach rumbled. "And get some food, I'm starving!"
When nightfall came, the pair were under the covers, this time there was no hesitation as they wrapped their arms around each other, sharing their body heat. Sleep came easily for both, dreaming of each other in that world they were so desperately trying to get back to.
Sometime in the night Kai woke up and wondered what fresh hell he was in. He had morning wood as discrete as a clown in the military, the urge to piss so bad it felt like his kidney would burst and there was a bee inside the tent, right at the fucking door!
His options were bleak:
1. Try to kill the bee.
2. Sneak out, hoping the bee wouldn't notice him
3. Say to hell with everything and burn an escape route- potentially burning down the forest in the process.
4. Wake up Tyson, explain everything, pray to God that the kid didn't notice his raging hard-on. Why the hell didn't he wear tighter pants?
So it was his pride or death...
"Tyson!" he hissed. Surprisingly the boy opened his eyes immediately.
"K-Kai? What's up buddy?" he mumbled sleepily, rubbing one eye.
"Tyson, there is a bee in the tent."
"So? You pet spiders." Tyson scoffed.
"I'm allergic to bees."
It took Tyson a full 10 seconds to comprehend that statement. "How allergic?"
"If I get stung, without an epipen – I die."
Mahogany eyes widened, and his trademark grin and mind-boggling confidence came to the forefront. "Don't worry Kai, leave it to me! Wrap the blanket around you to act as a barrier." he instructed, leaving the warm cocoon that he and his bed mate had created, goosebumps appearing on his skin as he shivered. Not wanting to hurt the creature, as it wasn't it's fault that it had wandered into the tent, he used his powers to create an air current, so when he opened the zipper of the tent, the breeze carried the bee out of the tent and into the forest. "Bee is gone!" he announced. A blurr suddenly shot past him and he found himself alone in the tent. Hearing a very steady stream of water, he chuckled. "It's times like this where I remember you're actually human." he called into the bush.
"Zip it Kinomiya, or I'll put spiders on your face while you sleep!" came the sharp retort that made the teen shudder.
"How's this? You protect me from spiders, I'll make sure the bees don't get ya!" he reasoned. The Dranzer-holder came back a moment later and stared at the teen intensely for a moment before running his long, pale, slender fingers through Tyson's midnight tresses. Tyson was stunned at the intimate gesture, before he leaned into the touch. A moment later, Kai pulled away his hand and revealed yet another arachnid. Startled, Tyson jumped back. "Please tell me it doesn't have babies."
"No, worse. This one is poisonous."
"AND YOU'RE JUST HOLDING IT?!"
"As long as I make no sudden movements, I'll be fine." Tyson jumped back as the fire-manipulator turned the spider into ash. "Can't say the same for it."
"What kind of spider was that Kai?"
The spider-slayer said nothing and crawled back into bed. "You're better off not knowing."
The bluenette shivered before crawling into the warm bed with his partner, knowing this was the older's silent agreement to their deal. As soon as he felt the older's strong arms wrap around him, he immediately felt safe and drifted off to sleep, oblivious to the kiss that was placed upon his forehead and the promise after.
"I will always protect you, Tyson."
There another chapter done, with more adorableness for you guys. Are any of you able to figure out the last riddle without consulting google or any other search engine? Were Max and Ray in character? Anyone else wishing they had their own Kai to snuggle with? Hope you enjoyed and hopefully I can get the next chapter up soon.