Smells like Team Spirit

by Zadien

Beyblade Ice Hockey AU. The Sharks have always won the league, each and every year, but this year will be different. Kai Hiwatari, the ex-captain of the Sharks, now captains the Tigers, the talented yet dysfunctional contenders for the trophy with all their emotional baggage, prank pulling and bitter resentment of change.

14. Complications of a dangerous mind

Chapter Fourteen: Complications of a dangerous mind

---

The Christmas spirit had hit Preston Academy to an unusual extent. Everywhere any student looked in the halls, mistletoe hung in clumps thanks to the cheerleaders' desperate campaigning. Not just happy with that, they were rushing around the school holding their own bunches and trying to catch half the male student body unawares. One male who was carefully out of their way was Kai. The azure haired captain was cursing his father and his petite opponent for having to spend their last night in Preston before going home, on the ice whilst the rest of the team had gone back to the school to hang out before the Christmas supper.

He skated backwards on the ice, watching as Benson deftly handled the puck, though her sluggish movements gave away her exhaustion. The past week they'd spent every evening down on the ice with Nicolai trying to improve on their team playing capabilities. It wasn't so bad. Since last week, Benson seemed to be making a genuine effort to be nicer and to get to know him. It just made him wonder how long it would last. And that cynicism was unfair if she really was trying to improve on her character.

Mariam had been slightly off with him since he'd come back, though he couldn't understand why. She wanted him and Amber to get along, didn't she? That had been what she'd asked him to do near the start, to be nicer to her. It had taken them a long time to get there, but he felt they were genuinely getting somewhere. In addition, if he had to be honest with himself, he actually liked Benson's company. She wasn't so bad, once you got to know her, she was actually pretty friendly and reluctantly he could admit, if only to himself, she was somewhat cute. She had a great smile, one that lit up her entire face, though one rarely saw it. Well that had been the case, now she was much livelier. He supposed her break down last weekend had been a stress relief valve for her.

Nevertheless, whatever it was, she seemed happier and in better health. She was even eating more, he noticed, and the thought made him smirk. She wasn't too happy about him making her eat. She felt he was mothering her, god knows someone had to. Her friends just found it amusing, though he caught the subtle looks they sent each other when he did. Though it didn't annoy him as much as he'd have thought it would. It did bother Mariam; he realized.

Her jealousy was getting a tad bit annoying. She should know he was faithful to her. He hadn't shown much interest in any other girl and yet she was behaving as though he was Enrique, he did have his own standards and morals. Fidelity was something he strictly abided to.

"Oi, Hiwatari, you wanna join this game any time soon?"

He looked round at Amber's taunting and he grinned. "You should have taken the shot when you had the chance."

She looked up at him from under her bangs and smirked. "Bring it on."

She cradled the puck, balancing on her skates as she faced him down. Then she turned and glided furiously down the ice towards the nets. Kai watched her go for a second, then chased after her.

"Whoever scores the next goal wins."

"Then prepare to lose Benson."

"In your dreams," she muttered as she broke away and took the puck down the ice.

She could hear the scrape of skates behind her and, hunching her shoulders, she urged herself to go faster though the prickle along her skin told her that he was gaining. 'Bollocks', she thought viciously. Losing to Kai would be humiliating. They'd been competing with each other steadily every time Nicolai's back was turned. Now their coach had disappeared to sort something out for next term with Hitoshi. Probably the JV vs. Varsity exhibition showdown, which would take place in January -on the open day. Neither team wanted to lose, but it was usually Varsity that pulled through due to their experience. However, this year JV had the edge. They had Tyson and Max, former Varsity players; they had a fully co-operative team; and Hitoshi their coach was Varsity's assistant coach! He knew their plays their strengths as well as their weaknesses. Shahero had mentioned banning Hitoshi from their practices; it hadn't gone down well with the bluenette especially when his cousin Miyami and Arista agreed.

However, Amber had to admit Varsity's main disadvantage was her and Kai's rather fragile relationship, which she supposed, was Nicolai's' reasoning for keeping her and his son back. They'd formed a rather tentative acquaintance. Not quite friends exactly but certainly not enemies. They enjoyed razzing each other, some more than others, she admitted but that was just part of their personalities, she supposed. The whole thing was making her see the teen in a new light, something she wasn't entirely comfortable with.

She knew he was gorgeous, she'd come to that conclusion already. Moreover, he was decent when it came down to most matters and a good captain needed to be. She was pretty sure he was ruthless when he wanted something bad enough. His dry wit balanced out his intensity. His ego was healthy enough that he didn't feel he needed to prove he had a dick, as Foxy did, so he didn't feel threatened by the girls on the team. He tried to offer them advice where and when he could, leaving it up to them on whether they'd take it or not. He didn't get hurt or wounded when she verbally slapped at him, he mostly put her in her place when she was being an idiot, as she tended to be. He'd only put up with her childishness for so long which she admired, strangely enough. Somehow he made her want to earn his respect, she didn't want to impress him but she just wanted him to like who she was.

Kai slipped up beside her and easily stole the puck before turning to face her. She'd stopped and was currently blinking dazed ochre eyes.

"Hey where did you go?"

She scowled and sighed heavily. "Nowhere."

"Really? Well why did you skate past the net?"

She looked around and with complete bafflement realized, she was almost on top of the boards. If she'd gone much further she'd have ploughed directly into them and humiliated herself in front of him. She groaned and hid her face by resting her brow on top of her stick.

"Bollocks."

"Excuse me?"

She snarled, raising her head to shoot daggers at him. His hand unconsciously went to his stomach to rub the knot there.

"I said bollocks!"

"Well I guess that would distract you."

She bared her teeth ferally and had him flashing a grin in return, causing her to sigh. "So what are you doing for Christmas?"

He raised a brow. Recently she'd been doing that, backing down from fights when he baited her and switching to a neutral topic as though she actually wanted to converse with him in a friendly manner. He wanted to question her on it; just to see if it was for real but he was certain that would only put her defenses up. And like it or not, friendly Amber was a lot more pleasant to be around even if he did miss her fire. There was also the fact that she had a mouth that looked amazing when in a snarl. He didn't try to understand exactly why he felt that way.

"Probably spend it at home with Mom and Dad. My grandfather will no doubt turn up and spoil everything." His tone grew dark at the mention of his grandfather.

Amber studied him and the fine trembling in his bunched muscles. "What's he like?"

"Cold, heartless, fucked up."

She tilted her head to the side. "What did he do?"

"It's what he does every single time. He comes over even though he disapproves of my mother, makes snide comments every time he has the chance. He didn't want Dad to go into coaching because he says it's a job for commoners, not people like the great Hiwatari's. And since I'm eighteen, this year his whole speech will be about me joining Hiwatari Corp."

"What about what you want?"

"What about it!" he asked bitterly, surprised that he'd even told her since the only person he'd ever told had been Tala and he'd had to pry it from him.

"Oh." Amber said softly, comprehension dawning.

"Oh indeed."

"Well, tell the auld fart t' get a life and let y' live y'rs."

Kai stared at her, then grinned again making something in her gut flutter. "Your Irish is showing."

"Aye, well, it tends t' do that when I'm pissed."

An azure brow winged up. "And why are you pissed?"

"Because your grandfather is a controlling, manipulative shit-fucker. You should be able to do what you want. You're good enough to play pro-" she trailed of as she noticed his painful grimace. "What?"

"Hmm? Oh sorry, just got a disturbing image of my grandfather and shit." he paused to let his words sink in then smirked at her expression.

"Oh, oh, me too. Thanks a lot Hiwatari."

"Love to share." he replied easily passing her the puck, which she stopped with no great skill.

"What type?"

"Huh?"

"Cow pat or dog shit?"

She grinned impishly. "Neither. Horse."

Kai's smirk deepened and he chuckled. "Oh definitely."

"You're weird. No wonder Tala likes you."

He glanced at her to see if she was hinting at something but her expression was impassive, then he looked at her eyes and caught the twinkle of mirth. She liked her little subtle innuendo's, he knew, and liked them better if someone was quick enough to catch onto them. Though there were only a few that hit him in the dead of night and made him chuckle. It was just another of her quirks he was growing accustomed to.

"Ha, ha." he muttered dryly. "So why does Tala like you?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Well he once said it was because of my wicked tongue." she gave him a second or two to process that then exploded with laughter at his expression. "Ok, I'm stopping now because it's beginning to disturb me."

"Only beginning?"

"Yeah. So why don't you tell your grandfather to fuck off?" she asked rubbing her cold nose.

"Because you don't tell Voltaire Hiwatari to fuck off."

"Meh, I told my Nona Del Areece to fuck off."

"Is that why she disowned you?"

She shrugged. "Well let's just say it was the last in a long list of things."

He studied her now. All traces of amusement had fled her tone and expression though both remained flippant as she skimmed the puck back to him.

"What did you do?"

"I was born." She said simply. "And I'm not exaggerating."

"Do you want to tell me, if you don't, you can tell me to fuck off."

She could, she agreed silently but the fact that he gave her the option earned him the male equivalent of brownie points. "No it's ok. It's not a secret. Rosa's a devout Catholic and brought her children up under that religion. Mom was always a free spirit and got away with a lot more than her other siblings including her twin sister Louisa, because she was Rosa's favorite. Therefore, that's why she got to move away to go to college, met Dad etc. Now having a child before being married is a big no-no and that's exactly what happened to Mom and her mother flipped her lid starting talking about dragging mom back home and shit like that."

"But your parents were married before you were born." he stated matter of factly.

"Well yeah, but that doesn't matter. To Rosa, I was a Bastard child. She never liked Dad, especially when they moved to the other side of the country to get away from her and then mom changed her religion to Protestant. Rosa sure as hell wasn't best pleased and was even further angered when after my parents divorced, Mom wouldn't move back because it would uproot the Bastard."

"Is that what she called you?"

"Yeah, pretty much every time she had to refer to me until Mom had a big fight with her and so now she just refers to me as 'her' or 'she'. But that wasn't what led to the disownment."

"What did?" he inquired softly, his deep smooth masculine voice sending a shiver down her spine.

"Um, well I had a mind of my own. I spoke it often enough and took god's name in vain way too many times to count. I was tomboyish, put off church to play hockey and my best friend was a boy who could've posed for a magazine or something to that extent and the fact that I often spent nights over with him, well it embarrassed Rosa. However, the last straw was when my cousin Harley told her that I was Wiccan. Rosa really went off the rails and came up to Bakuten to try to force me back to Church! Harley had her convinced it was a devil worshipping cult."

"It's not." he countered casually, casting the puck from one side to another with his stick. Looking up, he caught her look. "My Grammy on my mother's side is one."

"Cool. Well when Rosa tried forcing me back into the church, I told her to fuck off. In the politest way I could, so she threatened to disinherit me, and I said fine." she finished with a shrug. "She later went on to officially disown me and cut me out of the will, which sucked cause it would have been nice for college and it now means Harley and the rest of the idiots get most of my lump sum!"

"That's harsh."

"Not really. To be brutally honest, I care very little about the Del Areece family and vice versa. It's mom I feel sorry for. She doesn't have much contact with her siblings, but I suppose she has Auntie Anne and Aubrey, Keiko -Tyson's mom, our next door neighbor, and Jean, my god mother."

His gut jolted at the mention of her mother. He'd pushed the information he'd absorbed last week to the back of his mind. He was still unsure how to deal with it, knowing that tomorrow he'd be forced into having to deal with it, since she was his next-door neighbor, and since Treasa his godmother and neighbor was her mother.

"So what are you doing for Christmas?"

"Um, I'm spending a few days with Dad and his slut of a new hussy who I have so far avoided and whose name I do not know."

Kai winced. She couldn't blame him for James being with his aunt Pricilla could she? It was hard to know. Benson was hard to figure.

"Then back home on Christmas day to hang out in Bakuten, see the family and exchange gifts and stuff. We'll probably celebrate Shahero's birthday on New Years Eve and invite everyone."

By the glint in her eye he could tell she was excited to be going home but not to her father's. Would him being there spoil it on her and why did it bother him if it did?

"Don't you like going to your dads'?" he wondered; rolling his eyes as she tackled him and took the puck away, so he had to turn to watch her.

"Yeah, he's my Dad and his house is pretty cool. Usually we hang out together, go to the cinema and listen to music. He's more like an older brother than a dad, but it's this new woman. I guess I'm jealous."

Kai thought about it and glided over to where she was playing with the puck in one of the circles. "If my Dad and mom separated -touch wood they don't-" he amused her by rapping her head lightly with his knuckles before slipping the puck from her, rolling his eyes good naturedly when she snickered. He could almost tell what she was thinking. "Grow up Benson." He told her mildly. "As I was saying-"

"Before you touched wood."

"Yeah, well I think I'd be bitter if Dad found another woman or if Mom found another man."

"I suppose I am bitter. Though Mom's pregnant with another's man's baby and I'm fine with that, even happy, though the baby's scary."

"Understandable."

"I guess. So you're superstitious?" she asked, passing him the puck.

"Not especially. Just when it comes to my parents or things I don't want to happen."

"You care a lot about your parents, huh?" this wasn't the boy she remembered or the one she'd made up in her head, the cold, calculating one who didn't give a shit about anyone. Kai obviously did care and it made her feel crap to have misjudged someone so completely.

"Of course. If I didn't have them to bring me up, I wouldn't be the same."

"Yeah I can understand that. Without my family and friends, and my uniqueness, I might have turned out an anti-social reject."

Kai smothered a smirk. "That wouldn't be much of a change."

She jerked her gaze to his and stuck out her tongue in response.

"Oh very mature and sociable, Benson."

"Kiss my perky gold butt."

Kai tucked his tongue in his cheek and cursed the baggy shorts she wore over the protective padding. "Any particular spot?" he asked; as another part wondered at the golden skin, not pale like every other girl.

She glowered, then casting her stick back; she sent the puck whistling down the ice in a black blur. "Game on!" she declared, shooting him a challenging look, before racing after it.

His eyes darkened and focused, accepting the challenge, he chased after her. "You iced the puck Benson. It's mine."

"Finders, keepers. Losers, weepers." She tossed back over her shoulder as she crossed the red line, then the blue line into the opponents half.

"You knocked it in the wrong direction, that's the net I'm using."

"Yeah, and it's where I'm about to shoot my goal and win this showdown."

"Changing the rules mid game, how typically Irish."

"Not knowing how to adapt to change, how typically Russian." she retorted through gritted teeth as she attempted to retrieve the puck from where it'd lodged in the curve of ice by the boards. "Come on stupid puck." the prickle was back and more noticeable than before.

"Problem Benson?"

"None what so ever." she muttered seeing his skate appear beside her own.

"Really, you look like you're having some trouble. Maybe you need a hand," he murmured in her ear, sending a shiver through her and her skin prickled in a wave over her body.

She was suddenly aware of every part of him pressed against her padded body, though it was ridiculous how she was reacting when not a part of him was really touching her.

Nevertheless, his hot breath against the cool moist skin of her neck made her eyes want to roll back and her limbs turn to water.

His arms came around her, so his stick could battle hers for the puck. The fact that her slender body was fitted snugly against his was just a bonus.

Her stick cracking against his, snapped her out of her trance. "Dammit Hiwatari."

"I'm just trying to be helpful."

"Hn." she shoved her elbow back and regretted it, when his breath whooshed out onto her vulnerable neck.

"Benson." he growled, suddenly feeling the urge to sink his teeth into that pale gold neck.

"My hand slipped, sorry."

"Bullshit!"

"Whatever you say." she supplied distractedly.

She'd almost worked the puck free when Kai changed the grip on his stick, locking the puck between the two wooden rods. His hand skimmed hers and he felt her flinch under him.

"I did it, you prick." she scowled. She had loosened it. "Why did you lock it again?"

"Maybe I like the position we're in." he drawled.

"Girlfriend." she reminded him primly despite her cheeks flaring with heat. "Now move your bloody stick."

Kai chuckled at the trace of frustrated annoyance in her tone. She was adorable, he thought, and so easy to irritate. He buried his face in her neck to prevent himself from laughing out loud when she growled and attempted to stomp her foot, only to succeed in unbalancing herself and if it wasn't for his arms around her, she would have fallen.

"Careful Benson." he mumbled against the soft satin of her neck, breathing in the subtle floral scent and the fruity undertones of her hair. He felt her tremble and realized he'd taken it too far. It should have been harmless flirting but this was Amber. She was unused to this kind of treatment from guys, and it was unfair to play with her like this. He shouldn't toy with her, not after the way she'd been trying to be friendly with him. It was mean. Not to mention he had a girlfriend. All the same, it felt right.

He sighed then groaned as she wiggled against him. He closed his eyes, snapping them open again when he felt her move in his arms. He pulled back quickly to give them both some space and distance. She turned to face him, cheeks flushed, eyes dark and wary with a hint of pissed off and her mouth in a firm line… she was beautiful.

She winced and hissed as she stumbled over her stick. His hands instinctively caught her but she didn't notice as she scowled down at the death trap stick.

Then it slowly began to sink in that if she was still standing… her gaze traveled up over the Tiger emblem; up the smooth column of beige skin faintly tinged with pink; over the firm and fully shaped mouth, straight nose and looked straight into intense dark reddish brown eyes. Something inside fluttered nervously causing her skin to tingle violently.

'Buggershit!' the curse flashed in her brain. How did this happen? She'd dodged falling for any guy for seventeen years, yet here she was in the time line of a half hour, thinking about how her friends' boyfriends' lips would feel against hers. And judging by the way his gaze continuously dipped to her own, his thoughts were running along the same lines. A strange thrill shot through her.

Goddess what were they thinking? Mariam! A small part of her shouted while her head tilted upwards slightly.

Kai couldn't take his gaze of her mouth. He couldn't understand this sudden attraction to her. The more he seemed to try to fight it, the stronger he was drawn to her. Half of him wanted his father to come back or anyone to interrupt them yet the other half wanted to just taste that mouth. He realized he probably only wanted it because no one else ever had the chance but a small voice argued with him.

"Fuck it." he growled, gripping her arms tighter, drawing her up onto her toes as his mouth dipped to hers.

"What's going on?" Hitoshi demanded, genuinely fearing Kai was seriously going to hurt Amber. Wouldn't Shahero and Miyami just love him forever if he stood by and did nothing!

Amber's eyes flew open and locked on Kai's. Oh, shitter bugs! She cursed silently in her head. She swallowed thickly, her mouth dry and her heart racing.

Kai cursed Hitoshi colorfully, as he released her. Dammit, he wanted that mouth, should be entitled to it for all the headaches it had given him.

"Uh…" Amber began wracking her brain for a plausible excuse, and then her expression turned dark, as did her tone. "Kai said I iced the puck, then wouldn't let me get it out and he tried to trip me."

Damn, should have called him Hiwatari, she berated herself.

Kai searched her face and when her eyes bore into his imploring him to follow her lead; he nodded, making a mental note to corner her later. "You did ice the puck, Ember. And you tripped over your own goddamn stick."

She cast a look over to see if the older man believed them but it was too hard to read him.

"Well practice is over."

"Good." Amber said with feeling, grabbing her stick and heading off the ice, tugging off her gloves.

Kai followed her more slowly after collecting the puck. He glided thoughtfully over the ice, tossing the flat black circle into the air and palming it again.

"Good thing I came when I did, huh?" Hitoshi stated from his position by the wall of the corridor.

The two toned bluenette snapped his gaze to him. "I guess."

"I have to say you have questionable tastes Kai."

Kai growled, temper sparking in his eyes. "What are you hinting at Hitoshi?"

"You and Bensons' compromising position. I'll give you some advice, Kai. Being alone with someone as irritating and intriguing as Benson will drive a man to do something crazy, but you have a girlfriend and despite how tough and careless Amber acts, she has a big heart that's bruises easily and has been broken in the past."

"Just what are you trying to say?" Kai asked softly.

"I'm saying, no telling you, not to play with her. She may be annoying but she's a good kid, don't hurt her. Bryan already wants your blood; don't give him a reason to spill it. You're her captain and your best friend is like a brother to her. Moreover, Mariam's a sweet girl, she may act mature but she'd still just a teenage girl. Don't ruin your life and theirs by doing something stupid."

Kai studied him. "You're overreacting but the speech was nicely melodramatic."

"Isn't that what all teenage lives are?" Hitoshi asked with a small smile.

"I guess."

"Just remember, every action will have a consequence, especially when Amber Marie's involved."

"I'll bear that in mind, but why do you care so much about Ember?"

Now Hitoshi smirked. "I don't, but if Ember's upset then that'll knock Kaeto out of the Christmas spirit."

Kai snorted. "I'll bet," he muttered, before heading down the tunnel to the changing rooms.

He found Amber slouched on a pale blue slatted wooden bench; head leant back against a bar and tilted towards the ceiling. Her eyes were closed, striking black lashes rested on her flushed gold cheeks like spiked crescents. She'd stripped off her padding so he could see her small chest rise and fall with each slow, deep breath. Her hands hung limply beside her body. He gave a half smile. He felt how she looked.

Shuffling over to her, he dropped down beside her.

"I don't care what anyone says, I'm not moving until I can feel my toes again."

"You have to," he said with a groan as he leaned forward to tug off his skates. "We have that Christmas supper to attend."

"Fuck it." then she moaned. "Oh I suppose I'll have to go, last one this-" she broke off, eyes snapping and her body tensing. Her breath shuddered out. "Ever." she whispered, stunned. "Oh."

Kai surveyed her pale skin. "You ok?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah. It's just, I never thought… It never hit me, this is my last year and after this, I'll be leaving everyone and everything behind."

Kai remained silent, unsure what to say. Here was the difference, he thought, he never felt anything but grateful to be leaving Clonmel. Amber would mourn leaving Preston.

"Sorry." she apologized with a laugh. "That was the sentimental Irish coming through. We tend to look back at everything through really thick rose-colored glasses. But at least I have all my friends here tonight, well apart from the ones who were too lazy to stay, and most importantly Tala's back." then she turned to him, eyes like molten amber, drowning him in their warmth and light. "Hey this is your first and last one. Believe me, it's an experience. They don't have anything like this at Clonmel, do they?"

"No, we had a turkey dinner, of course. Can't have Christmas without turkey, but they didn't decorate the main hall and they didn't make a big deal of it. We certainly didn't have a secret Santa."

Amber grimaced. "Ugh, the students came up with that, and it's something I could do without. So who did you get?"

He smiled enigmatically. "Secret. What about you?"

"Ian." she grinned wickedly causing Kai to chuckle.

"What did you get him?"

She smirked. "I swapped with Shahero, so she's in charge of him. After all, he has been relatively nice to me since my fall."

"Great, so we'll be having fireworks for Christmas?"

She smiled lopsidedly and had his eyes dipping to that tempting mouth. He couldn't understand what it was about her that hooked him in, but something did. For a while, he'd convinced himself that he'd only had a sisterly affection for the bright whiskey eyed nymph. After all, she was his god sister, the daughter of a man who was like an uncle to him, which was more than he was to his daughter, he thought sourly, surprising himself. He'd known James nearly all his life and genuinely liked the man. He could understand why he never saw his daughter that often, but he also saw how it affected Amber. In addition, he felt protective of her.

Something about her pulled at him. He wasn't quite certain what. Maybe it was her strength or her very real weaknesses. Her vindictive streak which showed she could take care of herself or her vulnerable side that exhibited her need to be looked after. Her annoying traits which made her human or her ability to show kindness to everyone, not just the people she adored and cared about. Her determination and her loyalty. Her sarcastic nature and her ability to poke fun at herself. In the end, he realized it was a combination of all of that and more; and he was beginning to accept it. It was just her. Just last month he wondered what it was about her that inspired everyone's loyalty, now it seemed obvious. She inspired it by being herself.

Poor Wyatt never stood a chance, he thought sympathetically. Now it seemed he was being ensnared. He needed to straighten things out, and fast.

"Look about earlier-" he began catching the flicker of panic and self-doubt in her luminous eyes before her expression became amused.

"What? You want a thank you or something?" she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

"A thank you?" he repeated baffled.

"Yeah for catching me when I was a klutz and tripped over my stick? It's lucky you did catch me, I might have sprained my wrist or worse."

He looked at her steadily while she babbled. So, she was going to pretend it never happened, which was probably a good thing. He had to think of Mariam but if Mariam was out of the picture… He stopped before he went further. Mariam was his girlfriend. She was sophisticated, sexy and had great legs as well as a sharp mind. He wanted Mariam, not his Ember.

"Right. Well, come on, we better get changed."

"Ugh, yeah." she stood up with a groan. "The hell I'm dragging my carcass over to the main building."

"It's not much of a carcass." Kai commented earning a dark look, even as he couldn't help but run his gaze over her.

She scowled, and averted her gaze as he stripped off his over shirt and tugged off his pads.

"Anyway, I'm taking a shower in here, because we still have no hot water in the girls changing rooms."

Unable to resist, since he noticed the way her eyes lingered on him when he removed his t-shirt and stood before her, Kai smirked. "Is that an invitation?"

She flushed and scowled deeper. "Sorry, but no. If I even feel you about to peep on me, I'll take away your right to be a man."

"It'd be worth it."

Amber sighed and resigned. "Kai please."

"Ember, do I look like a pervert?" When she opened her mouth, he narrowed his gaze at her. "Don't answer that. Look, I never even thought of it until you mentioned it."

"So you did think it." she accused.

"Red blooded male." he pointed out flatly, then sighed at her suspicious expression. "Look, take the last shower that way I won't pass it and be tempted to look and I'll take the first shower cubicle and the closest changing one, you take the farther one. Ok?"

"Sure, sure." she agreed, gathering her towel and stuff from her duffle bag.

---

"Jingle bells, Batman smells. Robin laid an egg. The bat-mobile lost its wheel and Joker got away, hey!"

Sonia giggled at Arista's boisterous singing as she and the others decorated the Common for lack of anything better to do. Most of the school had headed home as soon as their exams had ended but the others who had exams on that day as the History and the Chemistry classes had, decided to stay until the next day where they would head home after the carol service. For Sonia, this had become a tradition. She liked celebrating Christmas with her friends, she didn't get to see them when she went home to Willows Vale, and it was quite a distance away. However, she loved going home to see her parents and brother. She just hoped she'd get a break from training, but it was unlikely. Her parents really wanted her to succeed as a runner and that sort of pressure; well it was hard to cope with at times.

Especially when it came from loved ones, she just didn't want to disappoint them. However, Steve was really good when it came to distracting their parents from her. She adored him, even if he tended to be an ass most of the time.

She glanced at her watch. Technically, she thought as she wrapped a short strand of tinsel around the computer modem behind the desk, the dinner should be starting soon; but as per usual, every thing was being messed around because of practices having to be fit in every which way. It was no surprise that the Sharks won so many games if coach Hiwatari had them practicing twenty-four seven.

Her big blue eyes picked out Ozuma from the group and she sighed. What was she going to do about him? He'd been on the point of ignoring her ever since he came back from that stupid weekend. She couldn't understand it, and she wouldn't analyze just why she felt disappointed by his lack of interest. Honestly, what could happen in four short days? Then again, look at Amber and Kai. They still zinged each other constantly, but there was a bond being forged between them and though, under other circumstances, it would be nice to see; it made Sonia bitter.

Heck, she didn't want to be such a girly girl, but excuse her for wanting some romance in her otherwise mediocre life. Why couldn't Ozuma pick up a 'Mills Boon' and damn well figure out what she wanted? Why were guys such dolts? Why didn't they understand about white chargers and the like? Then she frowned. Ok, so it might be a little hard for him to know what she wanted when she wasn't quite sure. When she was little, her Ken doll had changed from being the hero who saved her Tory (she wasn't going to call every Barbie, Barbie, it was stupid when there were so many nicer, prettier names out there) to the mean guy, who ranged from a man after her money, an evil grotesque sister (played by the doll Steve had melted when playing with a magnifying glass) and a vampire. (She had a big imagination.) Then the next week, he'd be a Count who was in serious lust with his maid and would take advantage… she trailed off with her tongue in cheek.

Yeah she really shouldn't have watched those soppy romantic chick flicks.

It had screwed up her life; she was now an idealist who believed a guy would know what she wanted… No, that wasn't right either. She knew most guys weren't interested in girls' dreams of true love but this was Ozuma. There was something between them. She had always felt a connection with him. In addition, no other guy made her lose her concentration when it came to schoolwork, or made her not want to practice her track times. She'd quite gladly put off running just to spend time with him, why hadn't he noticed that?

She couldn't go back to just being his friend. She wanted all or nothing and she damn well was going to get her bloody fairy tale!

"Sonia!"

She yelped and looked round at Arista who blinked surprised at the tinsel Sonia had just managed to rip in half.

"Are you ok, Sons?"

Sonia looked down at the tinsel piece she'd just mauled. "Um… Oh dear."

"Yeah, you might want to let someone else decorate. Possibly someone who doesn't want to violently kill the tinsel and other decorations. Go help Ozuma put up the cards."

"What? No!"

Arista stared at her, blue eyes flecked with amber, large and surprised. "Why not?"

"Cards are rip-able."

"I trust you to control yourself." Arista said slowly.

"And if needs be, we can get Ozuma to tie you up if we feel your getting out of control." Shahero snickered at Sonia's expression.

"Don't give her ideas." Miyami mocked scolded, before chuckling at the Australian's expense. "Uh, sorry Sunny."

Sonia folded her arms and sighed glumly, before casting a glance over at the dark haired teen who occupied her thoughts. "Why won't he kiss me again?"

"Great, girly talk. I'm going to go. Now." Shahero said quickly, followed by Arista.

Miyami watched them go bemused before turning back to a sullen Sonia. "I really don't think they've accepted that they are girls. Come on Sons." she led the depressed garnet haired girl to a vacant chair and hoisted herself onto the table. "So what's the problem?"

"He's the problem." Sonia grumbled.

"What has he done?" The silver haired Japanese girl probed gently.

"It's what he's not done. He hasn't tried to kiss me once. Aren't guys supposed to do that? Kane tried it all the time with Aspin and Tala with Ruin."

Miyami nodded sagely. So, this was what was wrong. "Sonia, Ozuma's not like Kane and he's certainly not like Tala. I mean, Tala and Ruin don't even have a relationship, they just have casual groping sessions."

"At least she gets groped."

Despite herself, Miyami sniggered and reluctantly the red head smiled. It was just so refreshing to see Sonia in a grumpy mood, it rarely happened but when she was on a downer, she was really on a downer. Her time of the month; which, since the girls had been around each other for so long, happened around the same time as the rest; was a hellish week. All strong personalities tended to clash and bad tempers were eminent. However, Sonia just found one thing to annoy her for the whole week and she took some serious silent vows and spent much time muttering and grumbling to herself. This meant she stewed and didn't vent her anger. If the others had a problem, they ranted and got over it quicker. Sonia could be bitchy for days about nothing important but once she was stewing, then she'd stew until someone baited her out of it. Normally that came down to Amber who seemed to know her the best, or maybe she was just a glutton for punishment.

"You want someone to grope you?"

"No, I'd settle for some petting."

This time Miyami just laughed out loud drawing some strange looks from the students, who when they realized it was just Miyami, got back to their work. "Man, Sunny sometimes you just crack me up. Do you want me to talk to him for you?"

Sonia gave the thought some serious consideration, and then shook her head. She couldn't risk Ozuma thinking she'd been pining over him. "No, but thanks for offering. I just… I don't know. I just wish I knew where I stood. I like order, for things to follow a pattern. He doesn't follow any pattern."

"This is why he's perfect for you."

"Maybe, but how do I know if I'm perfect for him. He only sees me as a friend."

Miyami mocked shuddered. "I hope he doesn't look at me the way he looks at you, Sons."

Blue eyes widened. "Why? How does he look at me?"

"Like he wants to just lick you all over."

Sonia's skin tingled at the image that brought to her head but before she could say anymore, she was drowned out by Arista taking up her singing again.

"Jingle bells, Santa smells, Rudolph broke his leg- Oh! Hey what's the next line?" the Russian poked Shahero who shrugged.

"I don't know… sing the other version again."

"Ok. Jingle bells, Santa smel- oh shit I forgot my lines."

Miyami grinned while something about what Arista said struck a chord with Sonia and when she tried to remember the song she was supposed to sing for the carol service, her mind went blank. Panic set in.

"Oh god, I forgot my lines. Oh god, oh crap!" shoving out of the chair, she ran out of the Common.

Her friends watched her leave, and exchanged a look, which ended up with Shahero and Arista looking at Miyami who sighed heavily.

"Fine I'll go after-" she broke off as Johnny came in. Looking round, she located Ozuma. "Yo, O.Z. chase after Sonia would you?"

Ozuma glanced over his shoulder, rolled his eyes and made a big deal about climbing down the ladder as he tried to smother a grin. "Fine. Where'd she go?"

"Music room?" Shahero suggested with a shrug. "Don't know. Probably the music room."

"Ok." he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and hunching his shoulders to show reluctance while inside he was doing his happy dance.

Miyami watched him go, smiling softly as Johnny's arms wrapped possessively around her. "So was anyone fooled by that act?"

Shahero looked at her and grinned. "Not me."

Arista shook her head. "Nope."

"Good." Miyami murmured, turning into her boyfriend.

---

Elton John was inviting everyone to step into Christmas with him as Kirby walked down the hall towards the dining hall, which was being decorated for the Christmas supper, and for no reason she was really looking forward to it. Her one problem was just that stupid Tamara Wheeler. As far back as Kirby could remember the girl hadn't stayed for Christmas before, and she was pretty certain the girl hadn't planned to do so until Miguel had mentioned it. Why couldn't he see that the girl was a leech, a parasite that was sucking the life out of him? When they had classes together, Tamara took the seat next to him and Daichi that was usually reserved for her. Kirby sat between Daichi and Miguel, which was an unwritten rule, not Tamara sodden' Wheeler.

She rubbed her neck feeling the tension there and scowled. Christmas was supposed to be a happy occasion and was she happy? Did she look happy? No! Miguel… God she had the hugest crush on Miguel. He was cool, he commanded respect, and he wanted the team to do well not to mention he was gorgeous. Sometimes he was so perfect that she felt so clumsy and stupid next to him. He was all blond, blue eyed with that great European bone structure, and here she was, the freak with green hair and red eyes.

She wasn't anything that he would want, or not anymore. She should have moved when she had the chance, but she'd left it too late. Now he just saw her as another teammate and a friend, not as a girl. Not like Tamara, with her perfect hair, and feminine laugh, smile, and skirts. Oh and there was also the fact that she shared most of Miguel's advanced classes, so they could have deep meaningful conversations.

She stubbed her shoe against the wall and sighed heavily. She didn't look great. Sure, she was pretty and she was curvier than Shahero and Amber. However, Shahero was dynamic, which made people notice her. People didn't notice Kirby because she was almost an exact character image of Amber. It was time she came into her own.

She turned round the corridor and managed to avoid walking into Mariah and Rei, just. Now, she thought, they were a good couple. Him with his dark and reserved good looks and her with her bright magenta hair and stunning face. They were eye catching and they were so sweet together. Rei really cared about her, and Mariah had adored him for the longest time. When they got together, everyone was happy. Just like, they would be if Miguel got together with Tamara.

Mariah shared a look with Rei as she caught Kirby's glum expression. She'd made it her mission to have everyone cheerful for Christmas since it was the seniors last year and she wanted it to be memorable for them. She was the Christmas sugar plum fairy, and everyone was going to be happy. This meant bribing the kitchen prefect staff to place Amber and Kai as far away as possible, to stick Ozuma and Sonia next to each other and Shahero close to Hitoshi, though not beside him. She still wasn't quite sure on the blue-eyed girls' feelings towards the assistant coach, since she was good at keeping her emotions to herself.

"Kirby? Are you ok?"

Kirby snapped out of her trance, and she locked her gaze eagerly on Mariah. "I need you to do me a major favor!"

"Sure, how big a favor are we talking about?"

"I'll tell you on the way to the dorm. Come on, we don't have much time."

Mariah shrugged at an equally bewildered Rei and let herself be led away by the younger teen before she broke out of her grasp and headed back to him. "Two seconds Kirby, I'll be right with you."

"Well hurry up please."

Mariah nodded then looked at her boyfriend. "Sorry, I guess I have to help her. I'll see you at the dinner later, ok?"

"Sure Mariah. She looks upset."

"Yeah." Mariah murmured with a concerned tone. The cloud that had settled over her visage lifted when Rei tilted her head up with his fingers. The tips stroked over the smooth skin before he leaned down and closed his mouth over hers. Heat pooled inside her but he kept the kiss gentle and slow. His tongue slid into her mouth, touching her own and retreating in a teasing manner. His fingers moved to the back of her neck through her thick silken strands holding her in place. Finally he pulled back placing a few more chaste kisses on her lips as if to sate the need that had built up inside him.

"Later." he whispered and walked round the corner.

She nodded silently then waited for his footsteps to fade before her fingers lifted to her lips. "That boy sure can kiss."

"I'm still waiting!" Kirby's voice rang out in a sing song manner and she rolled her eyes at her friend's dazed expression and the goofy smile on her lips. "This century please."

"I'm right behind you, Kirbs."

"You'd think at this stage you'd have been used to his kisses, girl."

"You don't get used to Rei's kisses."

Laughter bubbled out as the green haired girl laughed at her friend's bewildered confession before her expression turned grim. "Well, if I ever want to get some kissing from a guy, then I need your help."

That caught Mariah's attention and before she could question the younger girl, she'd raced up the steps to their dorm floor. Mariah had no choice but to follow.

---

Ozuma turned down the corridor leading towards the music room, which was where he was certain Sonia had headed after her abrupt departure. His brow knitted as the sax intro of 'Baby it's cold outside' blasted out of the P.A. speaker and had a faint headache throbbing behind his eyes. He hurried his pace to reach the soundproof music room.

So far, his plan to give Sonia some space was working perfectly. She was edgy and Kane said that was a good thing. It meant that she was thinking of him and was confused. In addition, if she was confused, she was vulnerable to her emotions and could be manipulated. Not that Ozuma wanted to manipulate her, but he just wanted to give her a little push in his direction. That was all.

He reached the door, and without knocking, he ducked in surprising the garnet haired girl who'd been staring out the window. She stared at him startled and a slow blush crept over her cheeks, making her suddenly feel a lot warmer than before.

"Hi."

"Hey. Miyami sent me to get you," he said moving further into the room. "So what's wrong?"

She struggled with the disappointment that he hadn't come on his own free will but because Miyami had bullied him into coming. "Uh, I just forgot my lines, but it's ok now. I just panicked."

He nodded pursing his lips at the snow that was falling heavily. Would the buses make it to the school tomorrow to take them home? Of course they would. They had snow plows on the main roads and the groundskeeper would clear the drive up to the main door, even if he didn't they could walk down to the gate. It would just be amusing for the Kinomiya's and Shahero whose homes were up a steep hill. Getting down wasn't a problem; it was the getting up.

"I wouldn't advise you to practice anymore. It would only make it more likely that you'd forget your lines. Overkill, you know."

She bobbed her head gratefully. "Right. You're right."

"A red letter day." he murmured.

She caulked her head as she trailed her slender fingers over a desk surface. "What?"

"Me being right for a change. I should mark this day down."

She bit her lip uncertain where he was going with this. Was he trying to lure her into a trap? She had read loads of stories where guys did that with words and they always started out with a random comment that had nothing to what they were previously discussing.

"Well I guess there's a first time for everything," she suggested lamely.

Ozuma nodded. "Well if you're ok, then I'm going to head down for supper. I'm starving. You coming, or are you staying up here?"

Sonia stared at him. He was just going to leave? Didn't he care? They were friends still, right?

"No I'm fine here."

Ozuma nodded, and then left the room, leaving her on her own. He closed the door behind him, then jolted when he heard a sharp bang. Fear had claws and they grabbed him by the throat. He swung the door open again and stared at a flushed and panting Sonia.

"What was that bang?"

Sonia squirmed and looked sheepishly down at her feet. He followed her gaze and noticed one of her shoes was missing. Surprised, he peeked round the door and studied the shoe on the floor.

"Did you throw your shoe at the door?" he asked slowly, not believing what he was seeing.

She opened her mouth, and then closed again. Her eyes round and wide. "I-I didn't mean to. I-I… Just go."

"Sonia-"

"Just go Ozuma. I just want to be left alone, so please just go."

Ozuma looked at her, wondering what he'd done wrong this time. How did things always go so wrong with them? He sighed heavily. "If that's what you want." He turned round and left again feeling his heart clench in his chest at the anguished expression on his face.

Sonia watched the door closed and sighed. "I don't know what I want."

---

Mariam ran a brush through her hair smiling as she heard Kirby's complaints about how her brows were fine. Mariah clucked something back but said nothing apart from that, just studiously got on with what she was doing. Popping a mint in her mouth, the bluenette crossed to the CD player and pumped up the music so that Bing Crosby drowned out Kirby's whining. Her gaze traveled to Salima's empty bed and she sighed. Salima had headed home instead of staying for the last night before the Christmas holidays. She supposed it was kind of hard for the red head to see Mariah with Rei, especially on a festive night like Christmas with so much mistletoe and cheer going round. But the way Mariam saw it, Salima should just get on with her life, or better yet make Rei jealous by proving she could be happier without him. Nothing got on guys nerves more than thinking another guy could make a girl happier than they could.

"Kirby, sit still." Mariah ordered, pushing her hair over her shoulder.

"Well stop plucking me. Do I look like a chicken!"

Mariam chuckled and spritzed on some of her white musk perfume. "Kirby, you wanted Mariah's help, so now you have to deal with it. Besides she knows what she's doing."

"So does Miyami."

Mariah scowled. "I can do makeup just as well as she can!"

The Chinese girl just sighed and headed out of the dorm leaving the two very different girls to bicker. She closed the door with a soft click and looked across the hall at the empty dorm of the senior girls. You could tell it was empty. No loud noise was blasting out of it and there was no soft line of light haloing the door.

Gathering her hair back from her face and arranging her bangs, she headed down the hall and descended the stairs, rounding the landing of the sophomore and freshmen girls' dorms and then down the stairs again and out the door. She hurried through the passage into the main school building while trying to decide where to go. She supposed she could head to the arena and catch Kai, but it just meant a long walk and recently he'd been sort of distant. It was just this past week, ever since he got back from the weekend. She felt he was hiding something from her, yet when she pressed him, he got irked and she ended up receiving the cold shoulder. She'd tried asking Tala but he was just as vague. She was entitled to know what was wrong with her boyfriend but they were keeping her out.

Sometimes she got the hint that Tala didn't like her, that he didn't trust her and she couldn't see why. She'd never given him reason to dislike her. In fact she rarely ever talked to the red head. He was Kai's friend and Amber's, not hers. But Kai seemed to look on the boy like a brother so when they did converse, Mariam tried to be friendly. Maybe if she was a hockey player then she'd have Tala's respect but really what was the point of chasing a puck around the ice? Why on earth were they on the ice in the first place? The whole game, no matter how entertaining was just weird. She didn't get it or why some people took pleasure out of being sent to the penalty box or bashing into another player. Kai got so intense about the game, for Christ sake it was only a game but you try to explain that to him and you'd have to ask him for your head back.

She pushed open a door and was hit with a blast of warm air and the sound of Dean Martin's Let it snow crooned softly from the speakers above her head. The lights reflected of pieces of tinsel and holly and ivy were wrapped round the banisters along the stairs. Mistletoe was hanging along the roof and the sound of laughter assaulted her ears as a group of sophomore's entered the hall and waved at her. She recognized some of them from her dance group and cheerleading. Another couple she recognized were Miguel and Tamara Wheeler. Tamara was lightly flirting with Miguel who was looking for a way out which had Mariam chuckling.

"Hey Miguel, Tamara." The girl's name was said in a cool tone, showing her dislike for the freshman.

"Hey Mariam. Haven't seen Kirby about have you?" Miguel asked slightly flustered and soon Mariam saw the reason why. Tamara was unsuccessfully trying to hide a piece of mistletoe behind her back. Her blue eyes flared at the mention of Kirby's name out of Miguel's mouth but she said nothing.

Mariam smiled thinly. "Yeah she's in our dorm getting ready for tonight."

"Getting ready?" He repeated confused. Kirby didn't get ready for things, she turned up to things, no forward planning necessary.

"Yup. Believe me, it'll be a nice surprise."

"What's she doing, Miri?"

"Nothing Miguel. It's a surprise. Hey Tamara, I thought you told Salima you were heading home."

Tamara gave a wide, innocent look. "Oh no, I decided to stick around. I mean the school's so pretty and magical at this time of year. It's a shame to miss it."

Funny, you've missed it every other year. Psycho slut! Mariam thought but out loud she said "I suppose. Well I'm going to find someone to hang out with. It's world war 3 back in the dorm. You don't know where the others are, do you?"

Miguel thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I think they're in the Common. I think the teachers shooed them in there so they couldn't cause any mischief."

She chuckled. "Yeah sounds like them. Well I'll go check on them. Look out for Kirby's surprise Miguel, it'll knock you for six."

He watched her head up the stairs and sighed. "Now she's got me worried."

"What for?" Tamara asked as she followed Miguel down the corridor.

"No reason. I just don't want Kirby to change. I like who she is."

Tamara frowned. The guy had Kirby on the brain and honestly, she just couldn't see what was so damn special about the girl. Yes, she was pretty and she had brains and she could play hockey but apart from the hockey, Tamara outdid her on the others. Kirby was just someone she had to out shine and with Tamara's looks, it wouldn't be hard and she could always give fate a little push.

---

Mariam jogged up the steps lightly as she congratulated herself on helping Kirby ditch the witch as the younger girl had termed Tamara. She had to admit, Tamara was really getting on her nerves and the fact that she was making Kirby doubt her worth really sickened her. Kirby was sweet and smart and perfect for Miguel, more so than stupid Tamara.

She rounded the corner and yelped as she bumped straight into a tough figure. She stumbled back and scowled.

"Hey watch it."

"Oh, sorry Mariam."

Her heart stuttered at the male voice, and her head shot up drinking in the sight of Ozuma. He looked tired and worn and still utterly delicious. It was wrong for her to think that about him but she couldn't help it. It was just something she didn't have any control over.

"Oh no problem. I was heading to the Common, want to come with me?" please say yes, please say yes.

"Yeah sure, why not?" he questioned as he fell into step with her. "So did you not get a lift home this afternoon?"

"No, mom had to work so I just decided to stay on until tomorrow and get the bus home with Joe tomorrow."

"If I didn't have my chemistry exam, I'd have booked as soon as possible."

"I thought you liked Christmas here?"

"I do." he murmured. "It's just, things are becoming awkward around here."

"Any particular thing?"

He shook his head, smiling slightly but his eyes were pained. The look just made her want to hug him.

"So where's Kai? I've noticed you and him have been kind of distant lately."

Mariam nodded solemnly, however inside was a different matter as her insides turned to mush. He'd noticed her and Kai? What did that mean? It couldn't be just friendly interest because he was a male and they didn't notice things unless it was for a reason. "Yeah, he's been kind of strange since he came back from the trip."

"Do you know why?" he asked quietly.

"No, not really." she answered miserably. "I keep thinking it's something I've said or done, but I just don't remember. Did he meet someone on the weekend?"

Ozuma shook his head, jade eyes thoughtful. "Not to my knowledge. We didn't get into town much and when we did he mostly stuck with Tala. And the only girl there apart from ours was Queen and though she made a couple of comments to Kai, he basically gave her the brush off. You know it probably has nothing to do with you, Mariam."

"Maybe. I just can't help thinking that there's someone else."

"Well unless he's gay, I just don't see it." He replied, running a hand over her hair.

It took all of her will power not to purr out loud. Ozuma just had that affect on her. Sometimes she just wanted to lap him up, he was just so perfect and confident. In addition, he always smelled like lemons. It just soothed and seduced her. However, she was pretty certain he was unaware of the affect he had on her.

"Sometimes I do wonder." she said with a breathless chuckle.

He turned her to him and opened his mouth to say something when there was a sound from down the hall and Shahero burst round. "Hey party people. What's up?"

Mariam glared at her, then catching movement out the window she moved away from Ozuma. Kai was approaching the school with Amber and it suddenly struck her how at ease they were around each other. It made her wonder how much of it was done for her sake.

"Uh, I'm going to see Kai. I'll talk to you later Ozuma."

"Ok, Mariam. Think about what I said."

---

"So what exactly happened between you and that Wyatt kid?"

Amber groaned and slanted her gaze up to Kai as they walked up from the sports arena through the darkness, the path lit up by the spotlights. "Zeo told you."

"Not the whole story and he told Tala not me, I just eavesdropped."

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm interested, s'all. The guy seemed pretty cut up."

She rolled her eyes. "It-"

"Hey, you two."

They both looked up as Mariam came out to them from the front door. She smiled at them but there was a strange glint in her eye.

"Hey Riam."

"'Suppity dudette." Amber chirped; then felt the intensity between the two bluenette's, her stomach churned and her throat felt constricted. "Um, I'll go inside, get you two a seat."

Kai watched Amber leave; her wet hair was hastily braided, her heavy bulky fleece sweater covered her slim torso and a pair of snug jeans outlined her long limbs and other things. He looked at Mariam. Her royal blue hair was tied back in a half tail, the rest fell loose around her shoulders, the jaw length bangs fluttered in the nippy breeze. Something glittery was rubbed into her glowing cheeks; a silver decorative star punctuated the end of her left brow. Her eyes were done up in a way that made them sparkle brightly and her skin looked dewy and soft. She was dressed in a red crushed velvet dress that hugged and clung to her curves.

However, despite the first punch of lust Kai felt nothing else.

Confused he frowned. He ran his gaze languidly down her frame, letting it linger on the creamy swells of her breasts and though his blood simmered naturally, he felt strangely hollow, empty. It was as though something he'd had minutes ago that made him whole was missing and funnily enough, he thought as his gaze traveled to the front door, he had a feeling that what he was missing had just disappeared inside.

"Hey are you ok?" Mariam asked raising a hand to his cheek. He really was gorgeous, the perfect boyfriend material but he wasn't Ozuma. It wasn't his fault; it was just a fact of life. She couldn't help being attracted to the green-eyed teen. She'd tried to ignore the chemistry between them, but it wasn't working.

Kai looked down at her, his gaze stormy and troubled. If he heard her, he made no indication. Instead, he seized her by the hips and jerking her forward, he covered her mouth with his swallowing her gasp of surprise. Her lips were soft and pliant under his and their tongues danced lightly but there was nothing. Other than the meeting of lips and tongues, there was nothing. It was no different from any of their other kisses; yet he felt different, distant.

She lifted her arms linking then around his neck, and letting her fingers slide into his hair. He shifted the angle of the kiss to try to lose himself in it, but still nothing. He felt he was performing in front of people. There was no intimacy. He was just going through the mechanics. It was enjoyable like practicing against his team was, but there was none of the adrenaline rush that came from an intense game.

Oh god, he wasn't turning gay, was he? He had a gorgeous full figured woman pressed against him and he wasn't really turned on! What was wrong with him? He'd had a bigger reaction to the imp, he thought, remembering the way she'd felt in his arms, how her scent had curled around him, tugging things deep inside him, how her lips had parted slightly, soft and tender and her molten eyes… he trailed off feeling his groin tighten. Ok, so he wasn't gay, he just wasn't attracted to his gorgeous, smart, funny and curvy girlfriend. Instead, a prickly, annoying, sarcastic, devious, soft, warm, sweet scented, compellingly innocent pixie turned him on. Great.

He jerked back from Mariam and turned away from her, running a hand over his face in frustration.

Mariam let out a quiet breath as her hand moved to her bruised lips. She'd never felt such passion from Kai before. Their kisses had always been softly sensual but this had been raw and passionate with a hint of desperation as though he'd been searching for something.

"Kai?"

Kai swallowed and tried to figure out his next plan. If he was… why was he saying if? He was attracted to the Imp. He'd tried to kiss her earlier, he enjoyed her company, and he'd just kissed Mariam and felt next to nothing. So what now? Did he go on pretending that Ember was just another teammate and stay with Mariam or did he break up with her to be fair and give her a chance to be with someone who could care for her in a way he obviously couldn't anymore?

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

He'd broken up with girls before, maybe not as many as some of the others had, but he had experience. That didn't seem to be helping him here. The problem was he usually broke up with girls because they bored and/or annoyed him. However, he genuinely cared and liked Mariam, just not in a sexual way anymore. He certainly didn't want to hurt her or to push her away. So what did he say to her?

"What? What are you sorry for? Kissing me?"

"No, but I suppose that too."

"Kai you're not making any sense here," she told him softly, stepping forward to lay a hand on his arm, removing it when he tensed.

"I do care about you Mariam."

Her jade eyes softened as her mouth curved subtly. He was so afraid of speaking his emotions, she thought with sympathy. She wanted to turn him towards her but she resisted. "I care about you too."

His shoulders slumped as his breath slid out. "We have to break up."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"I'm sorry, but it just wouldn't be fair on you for us to be together."

"Why? Is there someone else?"

Kai sighed. What did he say now? Lie or tell her the truth and have her look at every girl in the school to figure out who it was. "No, not in the way you mean. I haven't been cheating on you."

"But obviously you like someone else better than me."

"Mariam," he exhaled heavily. He was completely out of his depth. "I-"

"No, I want to know who it is Kai. You go off on that weekend and you come back sullen and moody, but I put up with it and I don't question you because I figure you'll come to me when you're ready. However, you never did, you never tell me when something's bothering you. And now you kiss me and then you tell me you want to break up with me?" her voice rose with slight panic.

"It's for the best."

"How do you work that out? How can you just turn off your emotions?"

"I didn't turn them off, they went out. I can't help how I feel Mariam but I can help what I do with them. It would be unfair for me to continue this."

"Who is she?"

"No one. I just… leave it alone. It's for the best."

Mariam turned her face to the moon and laughed bitterly. "Yeah I'm sure it is. Look whatever Kai, I'm not going to plead or beg. If you don't want to be with me, then that's your own look out." she turned round and fled leaving Kai outside alone.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face. What the hell was he thinking? He made the choice that suit them best, he couldn't be with Mariam when they're relationship wasn't really a relationship anymore. It wasn't even a friendship with benefits. It was just dead in the water.

He scowled at his feet and shoved his hands into his pockets. It was all Benson's fault, why the hell did she have to invade his mind now. He'd told Tala when he first arrived that he wouldn't touch Benson with a barge pole, shit that was only two and a half months ago, it seemed like years. He still had another 6 months or so of school left and if she'd grown on him in such a short time, what was going to happen to him within the next couple of months? He needed to talk to someone about this, needed to sort things out in his head. His mother would be the obvious choice but with the new information that Amber was his parent's goddaughter, he didn't necessarily feel comfortable talking to them about the petite nymph.

He turned to the school; he'd think about this later, right now his stomach was crying out for food.

---

Amber sat at a round table with Shahero, Enrique, Johnny and Michael. A log decorated with fake snow with a red spiral candle burning on it sat in the middle of the table. Around them was the buzz of chattering students who were discussing the upcoming Christmas disco. Shahero and Amber weren't looking forward to it. They'd been once again, pushed into wearing a skirt by Miyami Kinomiya. She was becoming the bane of their existence. What part of 'we don't like skirts' did she not get? Amber scowled down at her own. Her legs were cold despite the black suede boots. The tan skirt was made of a heavy material that was easy to move in but would keep them relatively warm; or so Miyami said. She wore a soft woolen snug sweater in an off white color. She felt odd, festive but odd, like a tall glass of champagne.

Shahero was in a royal blue top and a black skirt though luckily, it went past her knee but unfortunately, it had a slit up the side so she could move for freely. The skirt hadn't pleased her but because it was Mimi and she gave them the eyes, they really hadn't had much of a say in the whole thing. Nevertheless, she did like the brow bar she'd gotten.

"Ok this music is getting me down." Shahero mumbled grumpily shooting glares at the speakers, well alternating between shooting glares at the stereo and watching Ian.

"This skirt's getting me down."

Shahero nodded at Amber's comment. "Yeah, skirts are evil. I swear Miyami made the slit on mine longer than it should be."

"Oh give it a rest, both of you." Johnny commanded, casting a look towards the door where any minute Miyami would be appearing in her latest creation. The thought made him smile, Miyami was possibly the most creative and inspirational person he knew. She never judged people, she gave them a fair chance and was very loyal and under all of that was the style and confidence to carry it off.

"You're not the one with a snow flake on your butt." Amber grumbled.

"Yeah and if I wanted to look like the star spangled banner, I would have cloaked the flag around me."

Michael chuckled. "Hey did you guys see Bethan?"

Amber shook her head. "Nope but she'll probably be down in a little while. So, who did you guys get for the secret Santa thing?"

"Not you." Johnny said.

"I'm debating whether that's a good thing or not."

"Did you get me?" Shahero wondered.

"Nope."

"Did any of you get me?"

Enrique sent Shahero a sly grin that had her eyes widening. "Oh no. No. Not you. Last time I got lingerie with peek-a-boo panels."

Amber chuckled. "Oh yeah, that's right. What were you thinking Enri?"

"I'd like to ask him that myself."

The table winced and looked up over Shahero to where Hitoshi stood behind her. She gave an imperceptible shudder as she felt all the nerves along her back come to life. She schooled her features into scowl and glared at him. "Private conversation Kinomiya, piss off."

"So what was this lingerie like?" Hitoshi asked with genuine interest, running his heated gaze down Shahero's form, feeling slightly disappointed that the skirt wasn't longer and that she wasn't standing up. Nevertheless, Miyami had done good work; the skirt would cling sleekly to the subtle curves.

"Enrique don't answer that or I'll hurt you."

"So you want it to be a surprise Kaeto?"

"It'll be a surprise if you're not limping in another moment." Amber quipped while Shahero gave a look that told him that she agreed with her stepsister.

However, it didn't bother Hitoshi. What bothered him was that he wasn't getting over his slight infatuation with her, but he supposed that would just be something he'd have to live with until she was out of his life for good and he could get over her.

"Oh I think Maye's looking for you, Kinomiya, better not keep her waiting. After all she has mistletoe."

"Well I'll get it from her and bring it back for you then."

"Yeah well if you want Hero to shove it up your ass, all you have to do is ask. She's in great humor, I'm sure she'd oblige."

"Benson, fuck off and get your own life." Hitoshi growled; then winced when something flickered over her face. He hadn't meant to snap at her, but Shahero had his nerves frayed. He liked having control over himself, but he didn't have any when it came to Shahero and when he was around her, he didn't like being interrupted.

Shahero shot to her feet and snarled at him. "Where do you get off talking to Amber like that? Who the hell do you think you are?"

Hitoshi stepped closer to her and looked down at her, eyes tracing her features. Her eyes glittered with anger, like the darkest sapphire and her cheeks flushed with temper. Her hair fell silkily around her shoulders where the silver caught the light. Her mouth was snarling and he just wanted to tug her close and cover it with his. He shouldn't, but the girl got under his skin. His eyes darkened as he stepped closer.

She knew he was trying to intimidate her, she was well aware of it. And normally it didn't work, but today he was standing so close that she could feel him like a line of heat against her. His eyes were hot and unmistakably dangerous, luring her into their depths.

"You don't scare me Mr. Kinomiya, so go back to the staff table and leave us students alone."

Johnny raised a brow at Michael who shrugged while Enrique just grinned like a fool. Amber shifted in her seat to lay a hand on Shahero's arm, keeping her gaze on Hitoshi.

"Shahero it's ok. I shouldn't have gotten involved."

Shahero flicked her gaze to her friend; then snapped them back to Hitoshi. "You have the right to speak your mind. If Kinomiya can't deal with that, then that's his problem. Maybe he should go play with people his own age."

Hitoshi seethed as his insides boiled in annoyance. Her scent curled around him and lust curled in his belly. He reached his limit with her. Every single time she pushed and poked at him and expected him to back down like a meek little puppy. That was something he sincerely wasn't. He was fed up of her attitude and he was fed up wanting something so desperately and being denied it. His hands gripped her elbows and drew her to her toes.

Shahero's eyes widened at the violence and frustration that shimmered off his toned lean form. His eyes sparked with temper and his mouth was in a thin hard line. She tried to drag her gaze away from him but found she was lost in him.

"Mistletoe!"

Amber blinked, what had been quite an intense moment had completely been spoiled by Enrique Giancarlo, getting up and standing near them positioning a sprig of mistletoe above the pairs heads. She caught the way Shahero's gaze drifted reluctantly to the cursed plant, and how Hitoshi's mouth curved and she uttered a small prayer for the idiot blond. Enrique, of course, was oblivious to the threat Shahero was probably issuing him in her head and continued to grin idiotically at them while Michael and Johnny shook their heads. At a nearby table Arista muttered something about having told the blond to shove that sprig up his hole.

"Come on guys, kiss and make up!" Mariah called out cheerfully; fortunately, for her, she was hidden from Shahero's view so only Enrique who kept nudging her closer to Hitoshi was receiving Shahero's wrathful vengeance plans.

Hitoshi smirked and the challenge was in his eyes while Shahero was cursing Enrique very colorfully. She was going to dye his baby blond curls, no worse; she was going to shave them off. She was going to strangle him, cut off his balls and string him up by his dick! She uttered a low growl and the sound made Hitoshi's lips quirk upwards.

"Scared Kaeto?"

"Of you? As if."

"Now you'd get along much better if you'd just kiss each other. Come on, release that sexual tension." The blond Italian quipped and had the few, scarcely strewn people who cared about him, rolling their eyes.

"Prove it Shahero." her name tripped off his tongue and hearing it, the way his voice caressed it had a delightful shiver running down her spine.

Her mouth went dry as his eyes dipped to her lips, and they suddenly felt dry, tight, and hot. She flicked the tip of her tongue over them and watched those eyes darken. She didn't think, thinking would only make her second guess herself and then she'd back down. She couldn't back down, not in front of the entire school -well the ones that were present. She had a reputation to maintain, dammit.

"Crap." she muttered, then stepped into him almost smirking with amusement when surprise flickered in his deep dark eyes. Her hands slid up his chest, feeling the rapid heart beat under her fingers, which matched the tattoo her own heart was knocking out.

She was moving so slow, literally she was moving at a normal pace but to him she was moving excruciatingly slow. He wanted her and Enrique was giving him the one chance to have what he wanted, what he'd wanted since he'd kissed her two years ago. Being obsessed with a scrawny tomboy with an irrational dislike for him was fraying his nerves. He was twenty years old and still hung up on a schoolboy crush. If he could just purge her from his mind he'd be fine, but his hopes of being away from her for the holidays were put on hold when his mother had ordered him for an old-fashioned Kinomiya Christmas. Which also meant he'd be left to run herd on the Kinomiya younglings. No one could leave Miyami and Tyson in charge of anything; they weren't responsible.

He stiffened when Shahero's hands slid around his neck, teasing the skin under the soft hesitant touch. She rose on her toes, and his hands moved to her waist bringing her closer until she was pressed against him. His hands wanted to move over the velvet curve of her hips, to just mold the shape, but at the back of his mind, he remembered that they had an audience.

His mind switched off as her lips brushed his, then pressed firmly against his. Her soft tempting mouth parted under the slow patient prodding of his tongue. Their tongues tangled and danced lightly, toying with each other. He tasted her moan, felt the tremble roll down her body. He groaned and pressed her closer everything fading in his mind, his fingers digging into her soft yielding flesh.

Her head spun lazily and she strained against him wanting more. He kissed her as though he wasn't expecting any opposition and he didn't get any. She'd been wondering what it would be like if he kissed her again, when her mind drifted before she had any control over it. However, this kiss was silky and devastatingly controlled unlike the first time when it had been hot and desperate. It had been like plunging head first into a boiling sea and not knowing if you'd ever surface again. This was sinking, and sinking so deep you didn't care if you'd ever surface.

Kai raised a brow as he walked into the dining hall to find Hitoshi and Kaeto with their mouths locked together in the center of the room. Most people were either looking at them bemused, exchanging comments or paying no heed.

"What's going on?" he asked a girl to his left.

"Shahero and Hitoshi got in a fight when he rightfully told Amber to get a life and then Enrique produced some mistletoe and here's the result."

Kai turned his attention fully to the girl recognizing her voice. He blinked in surprise at Kirby. He'd always had a soft spot for Mariam's outspoken yet clearly open-minded friend. She was like Amber, only without the annoying traits, and he didn't feel anything other than brotherly affection for the girl, if even. So, he really was up the creek without a paddle where Amber Marie Benson was concerned. He scowled, as his eyes traveled over the crowd of people locating the neurotic temptress who occupied his thoughts steadily. She was shaking her head at something Enrique said as he stood by her chair. His stomach clenched painfully and his scowl deepened.

"Why are the teachers letting this go on?"

"Well Dickinson is getting ready to play Santa and deliver the secret Santa presents, and he still thinks we haven't guessed that he's Santa. Maye complained of a headache and went to her room early, Miss Tate has gone home and Mrs. King and Mr. Shallow as you can see, don't seem to care that Hitoshi is giving Shahero's mouth a thorough examination." she grinned as Kai chuckled softly. "So where's your Dad?"

"He's gone home."

Kirby's brow winged up. "And you didn't go home with him?"

Kai watched as Shahero and Hitoshi broke apart and as soon as they did she elbowed the taller teen in the gut after he'd dodged her punch. He sighed heavily. He had every reason to go home, to see his mother, to avoid Mariam, to get away from this school, the sleep in his own bed, avoid the carol service, to just be himself. He didn't want to think about just why he'd said no but despite that, his gaze fell on his one reason for staying just one more night.

"He wanted some time with my mom alone." he lied glibly watching amused as Amber yanked Enrique down onto her lap so Shahero's fist missed its target.

Kirby nodded. "My parents are the same. Well I had better go get a seat. Merry Christmas Kai."

"Yeah, you too Kirby." he murmured, shoving his hands into his pockets and striding over to find a seat for himself. He passed Hitoshi just as Clover caught his arm.

"Hey Hitoshi."

Hitoshi looked down at the small hand of the perky blonde and groaned. This was what he should be interested in, instead his stomach churned in disgust. "It's Coach Kinomiya to you."

Clover faltered; then regained her composure. "Sorry Coach." she looked up not too subtly.

"Oh look, Mistletoe. "

Hitoshi looked up, slipped his hands into his pockets and considered the plant. "So it is."

She smiled while the others at her table who unfortunately for her happened to be Tala, Ruin, Michael and Bethan snickered. "Well it's bad luck to ignore it."

"I'll risk it. I don't taste what I don't like the look of."

Clover gaped at him hearing her table mates laugh out loud. She pouted. What did Kaeto have that she didn't? She, Clover Nixon, was every male's fantasy! Why did Hitoshi just brush her off?

"So has anyone got any jobs lined up for the holidays?" Bethan asked biting her lip as Michael's fingers stroked the sensitive spot behind her knee.

Tala grinned at her, guessing that Michael was up to something due to the blonde's breathless voice. "No, I want this holiday to myself. I'll be working through Easter and summer for college."

"I'll be working late nights in Sam's I suppose. If the bastard will give me back my job." Ruin growled.

"Why do you work for him?" Bethan demanded angrily.

Ruin just shrugged. "He pays cash in hand and more than most do for less hours. Plus the shifts are flexible."

"You work till four some mornings."

"Gets me out of the house."

"I don't have to work during the holidays." Clover announced haughtily causing Ruin to smirk.

"Well I guess even Scrubbers need holidays."

The blue-eyed blonde squinted her eyes at Ruin in an attempt to intimidate the dark haired woman who flicked the glare off as she would an annoying gnat. "So I guess you're not going home for Christmas this year again."

Ruin cast her a curious glance. "No, I am."

"You haven't gone home for Christmas in a long time."

"I go home every year. You're referring to the house Desmond and Helena dwell in. I don't live there, I merely exist."

An awkward silence fell on the group but Tala quickly picked it up when he made a comment about Amber bitching at Ian.

---

Kai crossed to the table where Bryan, Ian, Ozuma and Rei sat watching Amber growl at Ian. He groaned inwardly. She hadn't been sitting there before; she'd been sitting with Shahero, which was why he'd chosen the table as far away from her as possible. Now it seemed fate had conspired against him. He couldn't help the way his gaze ran down her willowy frame. He had to praise whatever god had put her back in a skirt that was short enough to exhibit her fascinating smooth gold legs, which were braced in her usual confrontational stance. He ran his tongue over his teeth as his gaze lingered on the soft velvety flesh behind her knee. He bunched his hands wanting to stroke a finger over that surface.

"Ian you're getting on my last nerves." Amber growled; then feeling a heat on the back of her neck, she glanced over her shoulder. Her brows winged up when she caught sight of Kai as her pulse quivered and her face heated under his scrutiny. She swallowed before she spoke.

"Yeah?"

"You have a snowflake on your ass."

Her shoulders slumped and she pouted. "Yeah, Miyami says it's 'festive'. I say it's a snowflake on my backside!"

"Amber people wouldn't notice if you didn't mention it so much." Ozuma grumbled.

His cousin growled at him, fed up with his attitude. He had only gotten sulky when she mentioned that Sonia had switched places with her and now he was sniping at her as though it was all her fault. It wasn't anything to do with her. "Forgive me for having issues with the snowflake on my butt!"

"It's a pretty snowflake." Kai commented blandly, slipping into a seat that just seemed to be opposite hers, so now he'd be eating directly opposite her, so every time he looked up he'd be looking at her. Great, it was a good thing he wasn't hungry then, after all.

Amber just quirked a brow and that intriguing face became haughty even as her pulse accelerated. "Hmph." she muttered dropping into the chair between Ozuma who was sulking on her, and Ian who just didn't like her, she was opposite Kai, and every time she looked up, he was watching her as though he knew she liked him. Oh, joy!

Miyami approached the table and smiled at the group. "Hey merry Christmas guys."

"Merry Christmas." the group greeted unenthusiastically.

She shrugged nonplussed and turned to Kai. "I only got your present finished an hour ago, so I couldn't put it in the collection box, so I thought I'd give it to you now."

Kai smirked. "Not really a secret as to who my Santa is then."

She grinned. "Sorry. So come on, open it."

He looked round the table then shrugged ripping off the paper. He took out a painting and gaped at it in surprise. "What?"

"Don't you like it?" if there was one thing that Miyami was conscious of, it was her art. She didn't like being criticized on it one bit.

"No, it's amazing. You have a real talent. But when did you? Why did you?" he trailed off at a loss as to what to say. It was a painting of him on the ice with the rest of the team. The crowds were there, the bright lights of the arena and everything was done in great detail. She really had so much talent. However, the main part was that he was in the Tigers colors, not just in neutral colors, but in the two toned blue of the uniform and thinking that he thought of his hair and chuckled.

"What?"

"Maybe he's insane." Ian added his thoughts and frowned at Amber's dark look.

"It's nothing Mimi. Just something, I thought of. Why did you do this?"

"I thought-" she began; then shrugged. "It's the painting for my art project. It's from our last game, I don't know something about you on the ice in our colors, well it struck me and I wanted to paint it."

"Why did it-"

"Because it looked right. You being in our team looked right. I don't know how to explain it, exactly. But you see how well the painting turned out…" she shrugged and made a face. "I just wanted you to have it."

He looked at the painting thoughtfully. "Thank you."

"No problem, now look at the rest."

"Before everyone melts with the mush." Ian quipped.

The bluenette captain coolly shrugged off his comment, and then turned to the rest of the present. He quirked a brow when he pulled out a simple black mug with the words 'the boss' in white bold writing underlined in red. "Interesting." he murmured, then caught the sudden silence in the air. He looked round them and frowned. The group that had gathered were now looking at Amber, who solemnly looked down at the table.

After a moment, she looked up and her lips quirked. "I got Rei's permission. He has no qualms with Kai having it."

"Yeah but-" Michael said looking between Miyami, Amber and Rei. The latter grinned at Kai's confused expression, motioning to Amber, so their captain looked to his sniper.

She inhaled deeply and puffed out a breath. "Why's everyone looking at me?"

"It was your idea."

She glared at Rei. "Pssh. It was a laugh." then she looked to Kai. "Ok, right, well last year I bought Rei the Boss mug which I jokingly said that the captain of the senior team should drink from. And when Miyami asked if it was ok to give it to you, I said fine, so we asked Rei and he agreed. It was only meant to be a joke, I guess now it's going to be a tradition after all. So all of you stop looking at me."

Kai managed a brief twitch of his lips but his heart softened slightly at the gesture. Everyone in Clonmel was so preoccupied to give gifts and if they ever did, then the gifts were just to show how much money they had. They didn't put thoughts into the gifts, so the gifts didn't mean anything. This did funnily enough. It meant a hell of a lot. He just wasn't quite sure what exactly it did mean.

---

The dinner wasn't as bad as she'd feared. They spent the majority of the time poking at each other, and telling tales of Christmas holidays past. Ian had fun retelling the story about the time he, Bryan, Tala and Spencer decided to enter a robot war tournament under the name of the Demolition boys with their robot Bio-volt that just spun around in circles even though it had impressive weapons. Kai listened and laughed at the appropriate times while Amber just spent the time casting looks at him to see if he was noticing her. Having a crush on a guy sucked, you ended up just letting your life revolve around them when they were present. When he wasn't around, she was fine and she could concentrate on her own life but more times than enough, she spent too much time around him. Moreover, he never noticed her; it was so pathetic. She was pathetic and hopeless.

After dinner, there was the usual Christmas disco. So now, she sat watching various couples, Miyami and Johnny, Tala and Ruin and Rei and Mariah all included, dancing and grinding to some stupid, syrupy sweet Christmas carol. Shahero and Arista were messing around with Ian's head. Shahero had had the bright idea to get Ian a medium sized singing Santa using the idea that since Gnomes and Elves looked similar it was bound to freak the midget out. Which, subsequently, it had; which had been a riot for the observers. Ian had gotten a major case of wiggins when he caught sight of the knee height Santa who'd been dressed in a gold sequined suit, with gold framed glasses and blue eyes to rival Tala's. Then it began to sing and shuffle falling off the table and into Ian's lap. The guy had jumped out of his skin, with a short scream before almost falling out of his chair in his desperation to get away from it. Now the two girls had the Santa shuffling after Ian with a booming laugh. The poor Russian boy looked as though he wished to leave immediately.

Enrique was flirting with Sonia while Ozuma sat glaring at them. Which was completely bogus to her, because if Ozuma liked her, shouldn't he be doing something about that? After all Enrique wasn't just going to stand aside and wait for Ozuma and Sonia to get together, then break up before he made his move. If he did that, he'd be waiting a long time. No, he wouldn't wait for Ozuma. And it wasn't as though there was a valid reason why Ozuma wasn't making a move. After all, Sonia wasn't with anyone else. They were both single. So, unless they just both wanted to remain that way, someone would have to make a move and the way she saw it, Sonia made the first one it was Ozuma's turn now!

Her eyes drifted to Kai as he, Robert and Oliver talked in the corner. Why'd he have to look so good? It was getting beyond a joke. He was wearing a black shirt with the top two buttons undone and a pair of snug black jeans. His hair was as unruly as ever, but she liked it like that, the bangs that fell over his brow brought more attention to his dark swirling eyes. She watched as he said something to Oliver that made the shorter boy laugh and she wanted to know what he said.

She scowled. Having a crush majorly sucked! She caught sight of a movement out of the corner of her eye. She glanced up and smiled softly at Bryan. If there was one person who could get her mind of wanting something she couldn't have, it was Bryan. And even better, he wouldn't expect her to make any polite chit chat. If she was in a crap mood, he would let her be in a crap mood.

Bryan sat down beside his baby cousin, feeling his heart soften when she climbed into his lap and curled up there. His arms wrapped round her, trying to block out anything that would cause her harm. He'd caught the looks passing between Amber and Kai when they thought neither was looking. It was beginning to worry him. He could read Amber's lovelorn looks, even when no one else could. It was blatant to him that she liked the Shark captain; Bryan had seen it coming a mile away even if he'd tried to ignore it. Kai got to her in a way no other guy had. However, Hiwatari was a different species all together. Bryan just couldn't figure him out. He seemed to be aware of Amber, but he was with another girl completely and when Amber sniped at him -as she was prone to do- he didn't even react. Nevertheless, so help him god, if Hiwatari hurt her then he'd do whatever it took to avenge his cousin.

He looked to his other female cousin. Females were meant to be protected by the males of their family, that's just the way he saw things. However, sometimes it was incredibly hard when one of these females insisted on dressing herself up so that guys would look at her.

"Why's Kirby dressed up?"

Amber shifted in her cousins' protective embrace and looked round to see her younger cousin. Kirby had appeared at the dinner in a white turtleneck and a short dark green skirt, voluntarily. Her hair was layered into a sleek bob. She wore a pair of black boots with a heel which made her legs seem longer and had Miguel and Joseph almost tripping over their tongues. She'd been wearing makeup too, mascara, lippie, everything! It had been a shock to her, and she wasn't quite sure what it had done to Miguel but the boy hadn't been able to keep his eyes off her the whole evening. Poor Tamara, Amber thought with a bitter chuckle. She wouldn't have minded Kirby dressing up so much, but for the fact that she believed that her cousin had only done so for a boy, which was stupid.

"To make Miguel like her, I guess."

Bryan's brow furrowed. "I thought he already liked her."

"He does. But girls are made to think that looks are everything and that they're not pretty enough so that the guys they like don't like them so they have to make themselves prettier."

Bryan thought about that for a moment. "That's bullshit."

"Not really. It's a psychological thing in society."

Bryan thought about that for a moment, then leaned down so his mouth was at her ear. "So to make Hiwatari like you, you're going to start wearing makeup?" He felt his cousin freeze in his arms and felt her sharp breath.

"I have no clue-"

"Don't even try it. I'll give you some advice, don't be so obvious."

She looked at him in horror. "How obvious have I been? Do you think he knows?"

"Knows what, I thought you said you had no clue-"

"Bryan, seriously." she pleaded desperately. God this was mortifying. Just what she needed, for people to look at her and know that she had a crush on the captain she'd professed to hate just about a month ago, maybe even a fortnight ago she might have said it.

Bryan inhaled deeply, and then let it out slowly. "Look, I only noticed it because I know you. You've seemed happier this past week as if you've finally found a reason to get up in the morning. But if you continue to sneak looks at him the way you've been doing this past week, then he's going to notice."

The ochre-eyed girl groaned. "Shit. I don't like this one bit."

Bryan nodded understanding her reluctance. They shared a dislike for most things in life that caused them embarrassment or made them look like a fool. They both had life pretty much the way they wanted it, and change annoyed them so they usually rebelled against it. "You'll get over it soon enough."

"Hopefully. I'm used to getting what I want Bryan, if it's what I deserve."

"You think you deserve Hiwatari?"

"I don't know. I really don't. I shouldn't like him, he's Mariam's boyfriend but… I don't seem to have a choice in the matter."

"Well just be careful brat. I won't be held accountable for my actions if you come crying to me."

"I won't because nothing will happen. He's with Mariam and she's my friend. Friends come first, besides I'm great at deluding myself. If I'm not around him, I'll be fine."

"Speaking of Mariam. Where is she?" Bryan wondered looking round. "She wasn't at the dinner, I heard that little pink haired girlfriend of Rei's mentioning that she wasn't there."

Amber's gaze swept over the darkened room and frowned when she didn't spot the bluenette anywhere. "I can't see her. Maybe she's sick. I'll go check."

---

Minutes later, she'd fought her way out of the dancing mob and had headed over to the boarding wing. She shoved her hands into her pockets and scuffed her shoes along the lino in the quiet corridor. Her head snapped up when she heard the flush of a chain, and a door opened at the end of the hall spilling light out into the corridor. When a familiar blue haired girl stepped out, she opened her mouth to greet her with one of her usual dry quips about Kai when she heard a sniffle.

Was Mariam crying? No way. She froze unsure about what to do, and then she gulped in a lungful of air and dived in.

"Hey Mariam."

The jade-eyed girl looked over her shoulder with red-rimmed eyes and offered her friend a watery smile. "Oh hi Amber. I thought you'd be down in the basement with everyone else."

The Irish girl felt her pulse bounded in her throat as panic licked at her. "Well I came to find you. Mariam what's wrong?"

Mariam swallowed and sucked in an audible breath. "Oh god, Amber."

"What happened?" she asked anxiously moving closer to her friend and studying her closely. "What's wrong? Are you ok? Are you pregnant? Are-"

Her friend shook her head frantically. "No, I'm not pregnant. I never had sex with Kai so that's moot."

"Well good, cause being pregnant young can't be good." Amber babbled helplessly. "So what is it?"

"Not here." Mariam looked round the hall then led Amber to the nearest door, which happened to be the senior girl's dorm. She crossed over to Amber's bed and sat down. "OK, well when I was talking to Kai after you left, he…" she broke off struggling for some control.

"He what?" Amber demanded stonily beginning to feel dread and anger simmering inside her.

Mariam hunched her shoulders, pulling her sweater sleeves over her hands. "He broke up with me," she whispered in a cracked voice.

Amber felt something inside her swoop and she sucked in a sharp breath at the news, then she felt sick with herself for being such a bitch. Mariam was heart broken and here she was feeling gleeful because her friend was dumped by her crush. She shook her head. Her priority was Mariam, not some ass jack who thought he could get away with playing with people's feelings.

"Why?"

"He didn't tell me. He just kissed me; then said that we shouldn't be together because it wasn't what he wanted. I don't know what I did Amber. I thought we were good together."

Amber sighed and sat down on the bed beside her friend. "You were good together. Kai's probably just confused. He's male; males don't actually know anything. They generally run away from change." she tried to reassure her friend, thinking back on the conversation she'd had with Bryan and then she felt her gut quiver when she suddenly remembered the almost kiss with Kai earlier. It had been an almost kiss, right? She didn't know. Maybe this was what had confused him and… "Shit."

"What?"

"Uh, nothing." when she caught Mariam's skeptical look, she quickly added. "I forgot to wrap Bryan's present and since I won't see him until Christmas day, well I wanted to wrap it before I went to Dad's. I doubt he has wrapping paper, but uh, back to you. Kai's probably… I don't know. I'm not good at advice giving. It tends to backfire in my face." she hated things like this. Not because it made her uncomfortable, no it fired her blood and pissed her off. No giving advice was hard because it made her feel helpless which was worse, much worse, than being uncomfortable. "I don't know what to say Mariam. Everything I think of sounds naïve or stupid because I haven't any experience in this area and I can't sympathize with you. All I can offer to this is that maybe if you give him some time, he'll figure out what's crawled up his butt and he'll yank it out."

Mariam smiled wryly at her friends comment. "What would I do without you?"

"Be normal." Amber shuddered at the mere thought. "That's a scary thought."

The bluenette half laughed, then she did something that had Amber's eyes widening in alarm and fear; she burst into tears.

"Oh Mariam, don't cry. Please, don't cry. He's not worth it, no boy is." Her voice wavered. She was crap when it came to girls crying, she never knew what to do. It made her feel awkward and well, like a guy, she supposed. Fuck, Tala was better at comforting people than she was. Even Kai had done better, she thought darkly. "Mariam-"

"Just go away and leave me alone."

She shoved a hand to her face and squeezed her jaw. "I can't leave you alone. You're not in a fit state of mind."

Mariam snapped her angry gaze up to her friend and glared. "My boyfriend just broke up with me for no good reason so I think I have good reason to not be in a fit state of mind."

Amber opened her mouth, and then closed it. She watched solemnly as Mariam curled up in a ball at the top of the bed and sobbed quietly. This was quite possibly the first time she'd ever seen her young friend break down. Mariam was usually so arrogant and coolly confident but that just seemed to be a veneer and Kai had broken it. Amber scowled. Just when she thought Kai was actually a decent boy who hadn't deserved her harsh treatment, he went and did this. She growled low in her throat before spinning on her heel and yanking the door open, she stormed out.

How dare he hurt Mariam? How dare he just cast her away? Mariam was the only person in the entire school who'd given him a chance, without her he might have remained a social outcast. The hockey team sure as hell hadn't liked him and they hadn't been about to give him any chances. Neither had the junior team. Nevertheless, Mariam had. She'd risked everything; her friendships, her position in school, to give him a chance and then he decides he's done with her? Bull shit! Amber fumed, turning a corner almost bowling over an unfortunate student. When he tried calling her on her actions, he merely silenced him with a searing look.

Down the stairs, she went, taking them two at a time, all the while stewing in self-righteous fury so that when Kai appeared at the end of the corridor she was spoiling for a fight. When he spotted her striding purposely towards him, something flickered over his face and his shoulders tensed.

"Benson." he greeted in his usual drawl.

She didn't even bother to react, just continued walking, grabbing his arm as she passed him. He let her lead him two paces before he yanked his arm out of her grasp causing her to turn and face him.

"What the hell Benson?"

"You, me, talk. Now!"

"Well I'm sure Mrs. King's very pleased with how well your English is progressing."

She bit back her usual retort of 'bite me' and instead glared at him. He didn't even react, just gazed back in a manner that made her want to scream with frustration.

"I take it you've heard about me and Mariam." when she simply arched a brow, he sighed and tried to roll the tension out of his shoulders. "Look I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine, I'll talk. You listen. Now we'll go to your dorm since mine's occupied."

"Look-"

She whirled on him, eyes blazing. "By your ex-girlfriend who's crying her eyes out on my goddamn bed!"

He would have smirked at the comment, if it hadn't been for that one word. "Crying?"

"Yes Kai, crying. I'm sure you've heard of crying even if you haven't got enough emotion to do so yourself." she didn't see the flicker of pain in his mahogany eyes and if she had, she wouldn't have cared. She was on a roll and she was going to get everything out or she'd end up hitting that devilishly sinful face. "You know when tears leak out of people's eyes so that they become red and swollen and how your throat constricts so that you have to gasp in breaths and you feel you're about to explode from the pain? Mariam's crying that way. And you're going to tell me why you did it or so help me god, I'm going to kick your ass all the way to Alaska and I ain't going to kick you back."

"Fine." he relented raking a hand through his thick hair. "Well we can't go to my dorm because Bryan's gone up there to sleep."

Amber sighed, scanning the hall with topaz eyes. "Ok then."

She grabbed his hand ignoring the electric jolt she felt and tugged him into a room to her left. Kai looked round it and groaned.

"The girl's bathroom?"

She turned to him and smiled thinly. "I'd think that'd be the least of your worries. Now spill."

"Benson this is stupid."

"No, what's stupid is you breaking up with Mariam." she stated, warily watching a spider cocooning a fly in its web.

"It's none of your business," he growled.

"Wrong." she countered hoisting herself up onto the workbench where the sinks were embedded in. "It is my business because the heart that you broke belongs to my friend."

"Ember, you're blowing this way out of proportion. I didn't break her heart, besides you never liked us going out in the first place."

"You did break her heart and so what if I never liked you two going out. That doesn't matter. What matters is she likes you and you like her! You didn't even give her a reason as to why you broke up! And stop calling me Ember."

He groaned; sliding down the wall he'd been leaning against to sit on the floor. He ran a hand over his face before he looked up at her wearily. "There was no reason. I just don't like her in that way anymore."

Amber gaped at him in sheer disbelief. "What? Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you the guy who was boasting just last weekend about how steady your relationship was? What can happen in just one week to change your feelings so drastically."

"A lot," he said losing his cool for a minute. Scowling at his loss of control, he inhaled slowly. "Back off, Benson."

"Like what?" she asked calmly, ignoring his order.

His gaze snapped to hers. Why wasn't she dropping it? "Are you deaf, Benson? I said back off."

"And I said, like what?"

He sneered at her. Why couldn't she just leave it? Why did she continue to press when he made it clear he didn't want to talk to her about it? Why couldn't she realize it was for her own good? "Fuck this; I'm going back to the party. The headache I was getting there wasn't as bad as the one you're giving me."

Amber watched him silently as he got to his feet. He could feel her gaze on him, but he wouldn't look at her. Just as he reached the door, her voice rang out through the cold, hollow room. "Sit down."

He turned round and faced her. His eyes were like frozen chocolate, hard and brittle; his face rigid and expressionless while there was a stiffness to his movements.

Amber stared him down with dark eloquent pools of aged whiskey. Her skin was flushed under the dusky gold and her mouth was pressed in a thin line. She'd folded her arms and her legs no longer swung casually, instead they were crossed.

"Do I look like a dog Benson? Or one of your cousins that when you snap your fingers, rush to do your bidding?"

A muscle jumped in her cheek told him that he'd touched a nerve. If he kept attacking her sore points eventually, she'd snap and lash out. That'd be the best for both of them.

"No you look pissed off and harassed. I'm just trying to find out why. If you didn't want to break up with-"

"Dammit Ember, I broke up with Mariam because I want someone else."

Amber gaped at his explosion then growled before banging her head lightly off the wall. She took a deep breath letting it out slowly. "See if you'd said that after the Christmas break, then I'd have gone, ok fine, you met someone over the holidays. However, Kai, you live in a goddamn boarding school. You haven't met anyone new over the past week."

He gave her a look that had her eyes rounding. "Ok, crap. Shit! It's someone at the school. How can it be someone at the school? You don't pay attention to any of the girls here apart from Mariam. You're not making any goddamn sense!"

He grunted something but she didn't catch it. Just as she was about to ask him to repeat what he said, the swing door creaked open and Hillary walked in. She looked between both of them and her brow knitted in confusion.

"What?" Amber snapped.

"I want to use the toilet."

"Use the second floor ones."

"It's ok, I'm leaving." Kai declared, disappearing out the door.

"Goddammit Hiwatari, I wasn't finished." Amber growled and rounded on Hillary. "Why couldn't you have peed later?

She shoved herself off the counter and chased after the taller boy. Her sneakers squeaked against the linoleum as she walked briskly down the hall. She spotted him heading down the steps to the basement and she hurried to catch up with him.

"Oi, shit head!"

Kai groaned and turned round. "Benson."

"Tell it to my therapist. He says I use insulting nicknames to show people I care!" she said with false brightness.

He felt a tickle of humor but swallowed it. "Your therapist's an idiot," he told her flatly causing her to grin.

"Yup. Now back to your session. Is it Miyami?"

"Is what Miyami?"

"The girl you like." she rolled her eyes at his slowness.

"No."

"Aspin?"

"No."

"Oh Kirby?"

He glanced at her and raised a brow. "Kirby?"

"Yeah well you know her first name and since she's not on the team or in our year, I kind of thought…"

"It's not Kirby besides she's too young."

"Ok, is she in our year?"

"Amber gives it a rest. I'm not telling and you won't guess."

She pouted endearingly and the look made him want to smile. Instead she turned to the steps and sat down on them, waiting a second for him to join her. When he did, they sat there in a comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"You can't just suddenly wake up and like someone," she said after a moment.

"No but you can wake up and realize that the reason you've been thinking about someone more than usual is because you like them."

"So you've been thinking about someone a lot?"

Kai thought about it a moment. "More than usual, I suppose."

Amber's brow knitted in frustration as she tried to figure out how to word her thoughts. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as the left side of her felt furiously alive. He was seriously gorgeous. She never truly believed that a guy could look that good. And she just happened to be another helpless victim. Hormones were evil things making people see others as they truly weren't. Like when Kai was around her, the world didn't really get any brighter. It just felt as though there was a spotlight on him. And, it was just hormones that made her knees turn to jelly when he just looked at her with those incredible brown eyes. She'd always had a weak spot for brown eyes, especially broody brown eyes coupled with prominent cheekbones, a wide, full, soft mouth, straight nose, strong jaw and brow. And darkish hair. To her the person was just more trust worthy. Blue eyes lied and made false promises. She didn't like feminine looking guys like Tala. She didn't like incredibly macho looking guys like Spencer. She didn't like weak personalities, nor did she like overbearing ones either. She just liked Kai, she thought with a sigh.

Kai looked at Amber as she gazed off into the distance. "What?"

"It's hopeless." she murmured in an almost depressed tone.

"What is?" he wondered inching closer to her, inhaling her fragrance.

She snapped her gaze to him before averting it but he read the barely concealed misery there. Something bothered her and that bothered him more than he'd like to admit.

"What is it?"

"I've never seen Mariam that cut up before," she said briskly and he knew by the tone that she was trying to distract him and that pissed him off. Whenever he thought he was getting closer to her, she pushed him back or to a subject she felt comfortable discussing and she did it without much effort that he rarely noticed it until it was over. But not tonight, he thought. Being this close to her was driving him crazy. He was close enough to taste the subtle scent of her on the tip of her tongue, close enough so that strands of black caught on his shirt and tickled his skin, close enough so that…

Before he knew what he was doing, he turned to her raking his gaze over the contemplative expression on her face. She was exquisite, everything about her fascinated him, not always in a good way but she always made him react. He studied her face, absorbing the details of her profile. Her eyes always drew him, no matter her expression; he could tell exactly what she was thinking with those expressive eyes. When she laughed, they weren't always amused and when she was angry, they weren't always as hot as her temper. For the most part, she wasn't too hard to figure out once you knew her. She was like a code, once you had the key figured out, everything made sense.

Feeling his gaze on her, she turned to look at him. Her pulse, which had been pounding in her ears, accelerated. Her mouth went dry as his gaze dipped to them again, her lips buzzed almost with the anticipation. Her blood began to simmer and her body came to life.

He shifted closer and the movement broke her out of her trance.

She scooted back and shook her cotton-filled head. "Ok what were-" she broke off on a groan. "Mariam."

He heard her whisper the name almost as a prayer. "That's a really annoying habit you have."

"What is?"

"You getting so involved in others' lives that you don't even live your own and the sad thing is that you don't even realize it. You say you've never had a boyfriend, but that's because you're too busy sorting out everyone else's love life so you don't have time for your own."

"That's not true." she shot back though something inside her told her that it was very much the truth. She preferred her version. "Guys just aren't attracted to me."

"Bullshit," he snapped derisively. "What about Wyatt?"

"Wyatt? He's a friend."

He smirked. "That wasn't your reason for rejecting him."

"Oh and how would you know?"

"Because I'm beginning to realize that I know you better than I thought. You throw up distractions and they're good, but the simple fact is that you're scared. You're scared of having a boyfriend or having any one mean something to you other than a friend because you don't want to be hurt. Living through your friends is a safe way of doing things but when you don't have your friends, you're life's going to be very dull. You'll look back and wonder what the fuck you've done with it."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

He inched closer. "A lot. I'm daring you Benson. I'm going to kiss you, unless you can come up with a valid reason why I shouldn't that has nothing to do with your fear."

She growled and her eyes flared with heat, though he was sure that not all of that smoldering heat came from anger. "First of all, you kissing me will not change my attitude to life and more importantly, Mariam!"

"We broke up." He reminded her.

"Not the point of the matter." She murmured nervously, she could feel her body temperature soaring. His knee was touching hers, lightly, ever so lightly but she couldn't think about much else but that.

He moved closer to her, feeling his nerves concentrating on the press of her body against his. His eyes dipped to her mouth moving back up to her eyes. She had such amazing eyes, an intriguing color filled with warmth, light and hope. Her skin was relatively flawless, looking as though it had been brushed with gold dust. Her mouth kept taunting him, red, full and tender. He breathed her in wanting to taste her to see if she tasted as good. He lowered his head slowly, not wanting to scare her off.

"Kai-"

"Shush, it won't hurt."

He raised a hand to cup her cheek gently, hearing her sharp intake of breath. His heart was racing dangerously, so fast he was sure the pulse in his neck could be seen jumping. Her skin was so soft and almost burning under his and her eyes were drawing him in, so large and dark; liquid like. Her lips were parted and her breathing was shallow. One kiss, he thought, and he'd extract her from his system or that was the hope. He wasn't sure just what was going on. He knew he was attracted to her, even if he may not want to be. He certainly didn't know what would happen if he did kiss her. Maybe it would help him move on from her.

She almost flinched at the touch of his cool skin against the heat of hers. At the one touch, she was mesmerized and she sat very still, eyes watching him steadily of their own accord.

Part of her screamed to look away while the other told her very firmly to stay in place. Wasn't this what she'd been thinking about, craving? The dark part of her punched the good part, which was preaching about Mariam and friendship in the face. She didn't move. She couldn't hear, couldn't think. Breathing was becoming a manual chore, one that she really had to concentrate on. Her heartbeat was pounding in her head, and there was a pressure on her spine because of the way she was sitting; she didn't care.

She watched as his gaze dipped to her lips and suddenly all she wanted was for him to kiss her, just here and now. She wanted desperately to feel… something. The one thought in her head was that he was going to kiss her and it had butterflies jumping about in her gut almost painfully. She wanted to squirm away but that would be cowardly, so she'd let him go ahead with his plan and in the end he'd see the mistake he made. She wouldn't give him anything to use against her.

"I want you," he murmured.

His lips brushed over hers gently, just a brief touch but the tingling sensation lingered when he pulled back just enough to enjoy her expression. Her eyes had drifted closed when he'd leaned in, and under his pinkie, her pulse had leapt. He drank in her visage, as his thumb rubbed over the velvet texture of her ripe lower lip. Her breathing was unsteady and when she opened her blurred eyes, they were swirling with so many emotions. He wanted to just drown in them, something inside him clenched painfully. He leaned in again, brushing her lips once more testing, feeling the need to just fuse his mouth to hers. She would be warm and willing, he could tell.

His hand stroked her skin while the other one skimmed up her side so that sparks of electricity spurted through her causing goose bumps to roll over her repeatedly, like waves. She opened her eyes when she felt the cool air circulate between there mouths. His eyes were deeply hypnotic, beckoning her to fall into them, to forget everything but him. However, underneath them, there was something else, something animalistic that made her stomach jump and her blood leap deliciously.

The lights suddenly went out and had them jolting, wide eyes meeting with surprise and to some extent reluctance. Sounds rushed back to them, flooding them, over whelming their fuzzy brains so it took seconds for them to make sense of it all. Then Amber was pulling away, breathing fast and her expression was filled with self-loathing. She scrambled to a standing position and her eyes darted around the corridor.

"Shit." she cursed under her breath.

"Ember-"

"No, no, it's…" she trailed off with a brief shake of her head. "You're still getting over your break up with Mariam. I should have known better. I'm sorry."

"Ember." he got slowly to his feet, reaching for her. That hollow ache had returned again once she hadn't been touching him again and his heart was scrambling with nerves. "I'm finished with Mariam, and I kissed you because I wanted to. You wanted me to kiss you also, don't deny it."

She gaped at him; then took a deep breath. "I'm not denying that I'm attracted to you. That's not the point of the matter."

"Why does there always have to be a point with you?" he grumbled under his breath but the way she pinned him with a level look told him she'd heard him all too clearly.

"Look, even if that's the case. That you like me better, or whatever. It's not possible simply because Mariam's up in my dorm crying. She still cares about you. It'd be cruel for me to do this. I won't hurt her."

"So you'll just step away and pretend everything's normal between us?" he asked incredulously. "You could do that?"

"Yes, I could. My friends are important to me."

"As true as that is, do you think Mariam would do this for you? Give up her own happiness and ignore her own feelings to spare your feelings? If you do, you're incredibly naïve when it comes to human nature. She didn't pay any heed to your feelings about me when I first came here, did she?"

She mulled that over, unsure what exactly to counter that with. He was right of course, but Mariam had been right all along. Kai wasn't as bad as she'd believed and she'd been narrow minded when it came to him, unable to see past her own prejudice. "Well… no… No, she didn't. But she had good reason."

"What? What was her good reason Ember?"

"Uh…" shit. "She saw I was being unfair and-"

He made a show of slapping his hand against his forehead. "Oh of course and she figured to make you see the error of your ways by dating me, did she?"

"Well if you'd treated her like crap, then I really wouldn't have liked you all that much."

"I gained your respect by being myself. Not because of Mariam. All she cared about was making her own self happy. Dammit, are you always going to put your friends first before yourself? Can you be that unselfish?"

"When it comes to friendship, then yes. It's more important and besides I'm not unselfish, I just have morals. Morals, which mean I don't cop off with my friends ex just after they've broken up while she's in my room crying. And, if you can't respect that, then fuck you. When you want something Hiwatari, you turn on that charm and blind everyone, but then when you don't get what you want, you turn really ugly. Did you know that?" she demanded squaring up to him. "Well I won't be bullied in any way. I won't have my thoughts belittled because you didn't get laid. So just, stay away from me. Moreover, stay away from Mariam! You're a really ugly piece of work Hiwatari. Your genetics may have given you a good appearance but even they can't hide what's inside."

"And there you go again, turning your gaze away when you don't like the truth." he sneered at her, covering his hurt feelings with a professional shield. The girl for all the size of her could cut deep. "You live in a fantasy world, and some day that fantasy is going to turn around and bite you. How will you deal with it then?"

She felt tears filling her eyes, and deep down the truth of what he was saying struck a chord but she ignored it. She felt used and broken, once again. And because of that, she locked her weak knees and straightened her spine; glad the darkness hid her glassy eyes. "Whatever. I hope Santa brings you a personality treatment over the holidays otherwise the team really will be fucked."

She turned on her heel and scowling because she couldn't shove her hands into her non-existent pockets, she walked off into the darkness, telling herself that she had two weeks of not seeing him to get over her stupid crush. When she came back, she'd be over him and better than ever.

Kai listened to her go and then lowered himself to the floor. Something inside him felt bruised. She'd been close to tears, he remembered. Her voice had been cold, almost normal but the light from outside had glinted off her too bright eyes. He covered his face with his hands, sighing heavily. Rubbing his hands over his face, he looked up to the ceiling; then blinked against the harsh light as it flashed on again. Down the hall he could hear some member of the faculty scolding some boys for messing with the lighting but he didn't' pay much attention. He had to figure out what he was going to do with the mess he'd created.

Or, she had created, he thought.

It was naturally her fault. Why did she put her friends first, it may have been endearing and nice if you were her friend but if you wanted something from her and she used her endearing trait against you, it was like a kick to the throat. Mariam wouldn't have had any qualms dating a friends ex, he was pretty sure of it.

However, Amber lived in her own little world where everything was nice and no one was horrible. But, dammit, that was the way he wanted her and fuck him for wanting to shelter her just as everyone else did. Only he felt his need to protect her was becoming a lot stronger every time he was exposed to her. He knew this would happen. Hadn't he known that being around her too much would lead him to this eventuality? Yet, he'd blindly fallen to his doom and now he didn't know how he could pull himself out, or even if he wanted to.

---

TBC