Pairings: Ray/Kai, as for the others well... why don't you let me know which ones you want.
Warnings: possible use of language (mostly by me. :laughs nervously: uu)
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters within the show. I am not making any money from this fic, and if you do decided to sue the best you can hope for is my notebooks and the pencil I jot down all my notes with. :grins cheerfully and waves: we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Please enjoy the movie... er... story.
Rain - by Sailor Gaia
The storm raged outside as a lone figure rushed through the unrelenting rain. He pulled his coat tighter around his body and ran faster, his shoes impacting harshly with the hard, rain soaked ground.
He dashed under the porch of a house and paused to catch his breath. Pulling his coat from his body he pushed his sopping hair from his face. The warmth from the house he was standing in front of greeting him as he unlocked the door. He only hoped he could get upstairs before he met anyone else. But, as always, fate and the weather were against him. He stopped in his tracks as a harsh voice rang out from the adjoining room.
"Where have you been?"
The voice was as cold as the rain outside and the dripping man steeled his gaze, before walking into the room.
He saw an fairly old man with jet black hair sitting in one of the red plush chairs.
A fire had been stoked and it looked like the butlers had already been around with the food. His examination of the room was halted as he saw the man's eyes narrow, reminding him of the question he had been asked just moments before.
"Out." The reply was curt, and to an unaccustomed viewer would seem harsh but the man showed no outward emotion other than the slight narrowing of his eyes.
"I expected more from you Kai."
Kai ignored the last comment and, walking swiftly with a grace rarely seen, he made to exit the room.
This got a reaction out of the man sitting in the plush chair, so much so that the chair was nearly thrown across the room in anger as he swiftly stood up and advanced towards Kai.
Kai didn't get any further towards the door as a hand gripped his elbow and started to squeeze.
"Are you forgetting who put you up boy?" he asked harshly and continued to tighten his grip on the teenage boy's elbow. Kai showed no reaction to his tightening grasp, and this only served to anger him further. "When your good for nothing parents died I could have left you to rot on the streets, but instead I took you in and raised you as my own." The lack of reaction from Kai at his words fuelled his anger and his free hand impacted sharply with the side of Kai's face. His anger rippled again as Kai refused to react to anything. There was once a time where Kai would have forgotten his place and attacked. Such is the way of a child and Kai, despite his best efforts, had been nothing but a terror when he first came to live with them. He had the same ideals of any child. And he wanted all that a child could ever want.
This was idealistic nonsense and he made sure to stamp it out of little Kai. Before long Kai stopped asking, and thus began the formation of the barrier that today keeps him from getting close to anyone... and anyone from getting close to him.
His eyes narrowed to slits and he pushed Kai away from him roughly.
"Go to your room, there will be no food for you today Kai. See that you learn your lesson. Don't disappoint me again Kai." The only sign that Kai had heard him was the slight inclination of his head as he left the room.
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RING
RING RI-
"Hey dudes-"
"Hey Tyson, I was-"
"Me and the home boy ain't here right now, out chillin' with the dudes. So get yappin' and leave ya number after the beep and we'll be chattin' to ya soon!-"
"Grandpa! Just finish the message already!"
"-BEEP-"
Max grinned as he heard their latest answer phone message. Tyson's grandpa liked to change it at least every week. Last weeks was Hawaiian themed and left Max laughing so hard he couldn't even say what he rang up to say.
"Hey Tyson, it's me Max. I was wondering if you all wanted to meet up. I know we've got the American tournament coming up and all but we really should meet up. I'm going to ring up Ray and Kai later after this and Kenny is in already. So, give me a ring to let me know if you're coming. See ya round buddy."
"-BEEP-"
Ray had just listen to the message from Max. I think I'll go, it's been quite a while since I've seen any other others. We haven't really had all that much contact since the Asian tournament finished.
Soon after he had this thought he rang up Max. It wasn't long before all the arrangements were finalised and he was on his way to Max's house.
He had left a small note on the desk for the other white tigers. Ever since the Aisan tournament was over Ray had stayed with them. They were finally on their way to being friends and Ray, for the first time in a while, felt at ease around them. Well, okay, he still felt a bit uncomfortable around Mariah, and was fully aware of her crush on him. He didn't return her feelings though and he still didn't know how to tell her. Thankfully they had a lot to catch up on that he was never left alone in the same room as Mariah. He didn't really want to find out which way the conversation would swing if that ever happened.
He looked up to the sky and frowned. Those black clouds in the sky did not look good. It would probably thunder tonight. It just smelt like it would.
He quickened his pace and cursed in chinese as the skies chose that moment to open. At least he was near to Max's house.
"Wow, it's really coming down." Max was peering out his window at the storm outside.
"It really did start up quickly, didn't it Max."
Kenny was, no change there, sitting in front of his laptop. Last night he had had an idea of a way to modify all their beyblades. Another one came when he was walking to Max's and he was now adding it into his laptop before he forgot it.
"Yeah..." he trailed off as the storm seemed to intensify. Suddenly a flash of black and white caught his eyes. "Hey, it's Ray!" He dashed from his spot at the window and rushed to let Ray in.
"Thanks Max." Ray paused to shake some of the water from his hair. "So, who else in coming?"
"Tyson and Kai are the only ones who aren't here yet. But then... I didn't hear from Kai, so I don't know if he is coming." Max said as he returned with a towel. Ray accepted the towel and said, "but then Kai hasn't really been one to go to social events. And Tyson has never been on time for anything."
"That's true," said Max.
The sound of banging on the door made them all jump slightly and Max went to open the door. Standing in the door was Tyson and...
"Kai?"
That got the attention of everyone in the room (even Dizzi would have craned her neck to see if she wasn't in the computer), and some serious rubbernecking was going on.
"You gonna let us in Maxy?"
"Oh uh, sure." Max moved out of the way to let Tyson and Kai in. "Glad you decided to join us Kai."
"Hmph, I'm only here to see if you have been slacking off since the tournament." Kai said and quickly headed into Max's kitchen.
"Uhh..." Max shook his head at the typical reaction from Kai.
"Hey Tyson."
"Oh hey Ray, didn't see you there." Tyson walked over and slung his arm over Ray's shoulder. "You mind if I borrow that towel there bud?"
Ray shook his head and handed the towel to Tyson. "It's not mine anyway, it's Max's."
"Max?" Tyson looked over to Max and grinned as Max nodded. "Thanks dude. It's really kicking it up out there."
Kenny looked up from his laptop and closed it, ignoring the slight protest from Dizzi.
"Well, the weather forecasts have been saying that it is going to rain all week."
"Yet another piece of information we never really needed to hear from our resident genius, the chief." Tyson chucked the towel back into Ray's arms and walked over to Kenny. "You brought your laptop! this is supposed to be a time of fun, eating, drinking and watching tv. Not working on your laptop."
"But working on my laptop is fun."
Tyson sighed as he realised his point would never get through to Kenny.
"Hey, where's Ray?"
Kenny looked around at Tyson's words. He was right, they were two members down.
"I saw him go into the kitchen." said Max as he picked up Tyson, Ray and Kai's coats. "He probably went to get a drink."
"Alright! while we're waiting for Ray and Mr-Sourpuss why don't we watch a movie?"
Tyson didn't wait for them to answer and grabbed their hands, dragging them into Max's living room.
"Hey Kai." Kai looked up and saw that Ray was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"Hn," Kai acknowledged the comment but didn't say anything as he went into the fridge to grab a drink. He shivered slightly as the cold air from the fridge hit his chilled body. Ray frowned when he saw Kai shiver and walked over to the fridge. Kai pulled back and barely managed to stop himself from jumping when he found Ray standing just in front of him. His eyes betrayed his confusion as Ray pulled his drink out of his hands and handed him the towel.
"Here, you're soaked."
Kai looked shocked for a bit, but nodded. He accepted the towel and used it to dry his soaking wet hair. He would leave why he accepted to later when he was at home.
Home.
He felt a wave of emotion run through him as he thought about his home. He would have to be careful how he acted around his grandfather if he didn't want him to do anything more than starve and slap him.
Ray watched as Kai's eyes turned hard. He would have given anything at that moment to know what Kai was thinking, and couldn't help but wonder if it was something he had done or said. But then... the only thing he had done was offer Kai a towel. Was Kai so unused to receiving help that he pushed away anyone who tries to give it to him?
Ray took this time to look at Kai without him knowing. The dampness of his hair and face made him seem more innocent if that were even possible for Kai, and Ray felt a stirring within him. Okay, he did think that Kai was kinda cute, who wouldn't. But that didn't mean he liked him as anything more than a friend. He couldn't. And besides... he wasn't even gay. His upbringing had seen to that. The village he had grown up in didn't tolerate homosexuality very well and had taught them all from day one that it was not something worth doing.
Ray noticed that Kai had finished his drink and quickly tore his gaze away from the stoic teens dark red eyes. It wouldn't be good if Kai caught him staring into his eyes.
Kai started walking out of the kitchen and paused only to incline his head. A wordless conversation flashed between the two in that instant and Ray nodded, following him out of the room.
Why do you always shut us out Kai? Can't you see that we are your friends? Ray shook his head and moved to catch up with Kai. He would think about that later when there wasn't a movie marathon to watch.
Kai settled into the chair in the far corner and glanced at Ray. He had noticed how the chinese teen had been staring at him while he had finished off his drink and, he would never admit this out loud, it had unnerved him a bit. Usually the only person to ever stare at him was his grandfather. And in that case it was usually a cold, calculating stare... and nothing good came out of it.
But Ray was different. He had not seen anything bad in Ray's golden eyes, in fact Ray seemed to be in thought. He briefly wondered what the chinese teen could possibly have been thinking about.
"Ooo yeah, bring on the good stuff!"
Tyson's energetic cry brought him out of his musings and he looked to see that Max had dragged out his box of videos and DVD's. Tyson was going through them with a huge grin on his face. One that intensified when he dragged out a DVD. As soon as Tyson stopped waving it around in the air he saw that the film he had picked out was 'Resident Evil.'
Typical. Trust Tyson to pick out a film with enough blood and gore to make a make up team jealous.
He sat back and watched as the opening credits started to roll. He cast one last glance at Ray, before turning his attention back to the film.
The film had just finished and the comments started flying. Tyson thought it was 'the best movie I've seen this year', Kenny had been going through every shade of the rainbow over the course of the movie, before settling on white, Max thought the film was great, but said that 'The Others' was better.
And thus began the great movie war of 2002.
Ray, wisely, declined to enter this particular argument that had now degenerated to Tyson having Max in a choke hold and trying to get him admit that 'Resident Evil' was better than 'The Others'.
He chuckled at their antics and dodged a pillow aimed for Tyson as he reached for the video and DVD box.
Heeeyyy. Max had quite a collection here.
He even spotted a few that were in the cinema at the moment. As well as one that wasn't due out until christmas. Hmph. He would never have thought Max as one to have pirated videos and DVD's.
He learnt something new about them every day. For example, just last week he had found out that Kenny talked in his sleep. Most of the time it was just jumbled words but the first time he heard him he was somehow pulled into a conversation. It was one of the weirdest conversations he had ever had. They talked for about half an hour about lots of different things ranging from: "If I put a slant on the attack ring it should increase speed and attack power, what do you think?" to: "I really like your bunny slippers, where did you get them?"
If he hadn't been so disturbed he probably would have started laughing and woken everybody up.
He picked out a video at random, looked at the title, and cringed. What the hell was 'Fireman Sam' doing in here? Taking one look at Tyson and Max, who were still arguing (Kenny had disappeared somewhere and Kai was starting to look pissed off, (not that Ray could blame him - he even had that little tick of the vein in his forehead) he decided to take action. Holding the copy of 'Fireman Sam' in his right hand, he positioned it like you would a frisbee, pulled his hand back and aimed. A few seconds later twin cries of pain were heard as the video rebounded of Tyson's head and hit Max square in the face. Both heads shot up and began to look for the culpret. By this time Ray had quickly pushed the box back to where it was before and tried to look suitably confused. It must have worked because they looked away and turned to Kai.
Kai glared at them before closing his eyes. They looked to Ray again and he shrugged, imitating Kai's posture in the chair, while waiting for Kenny to come back in the room.
Further suspect-finding was cut off as Kenny walked into the room with a bowl of popcorn in his hands. He didn't get very far as Tyson practically jumped on the petrified genius and started to inhale the food.
Poor Kenny, geez, you could lose a hand in there!
Ray felt sorry for the poor genius and was about to go into no-man's-land and liberate the popcorn from Hier Tyson's hands when Kenny pulled four bowls of popcorn from behind the chair. Three out of the four teens grinned, and he and Max got up to grab a bowl of popcorn before Tyson saw it. Kai was the last to get up, Ray noticed, and the last to sit down.
He was suddenly distracted as Tyson's popcorn bowl came out of nowhere and landed on his head. He growled as Tyson, Kenny and Max's laughter reached his ears. He didn't hear Kai laughing but a quick glance (covered up as a glare at all those who were laughing) showed him that Kai was amused by this. His face maybe able to hide all his emotions but his eyes were another story.
Ray felt his anger dissipating slightly as he saw the amusement in Kai's eyes. It was worth being the butt of jokes for a while if that meant Kai was starting to open up and allow himself to experience emotions.
Max picked out a movie this time and soon the group fell silent. This continued for several hours and before long it was dark outside. As the hours wore on a decision to get some sleep was made as Kenny had already fallen asleep in his sleeping bag and Tyson wasn't far off.
Soon the group fell asleep one by one. The last thing Ray saw before he fell asleep was the flickering of the shadows caused by the storm outside, and Kai's sleeping face.
Authors notes.
Okay, it may not appear like it now but this is going to be a Ray/Kai fic. So any Ray/Mariah fans STEER CLEAR! They aren't going to get together, and the only relationship they have is one as friends or possibly brother/sister.
I don't know about any other pairings, so if you want to give me your suggestions I'll be happy to hear them.
Rain is a song by The Corrs. I don't know why but it just came into my head as I started writing this and so I used it for the title.
Oh and, I haven't studied German for at least four years so I have no idea if I have spelt the one German word I used in here right.
This is set just after the Asian tournament, and Ray is living with the White Tigers.
Tyson is still living with his grandfather.
Max is still living with his father.
And Kai is living with his grandfather.
Now, I don't know a whole lot about Kai's grandfather (seeing as he was only in one episode that I have seen), so I don't know if I have kept him in character or not. But in my mind Kai's grandfather is an evil little b$tard. You don't have to agree with me, but there is just something about that man that I just don't like. Oh and I don't know a thing about Kai's past. I just get the impression that he had a really bad childhood, and the fact that he lives with his grandfather (when he isn't with the Blade Breakers) shows that his parents aren't around. I don't know if they actually died, or were bad parents and abandoned him with his grandfather, but in this story they are dead.
If anyone knows Kai's history I would really like to hear it. Now that you mention it... I wouldn't mind knowing the other guys history's as well. So if anyone knows them could you let me know.
Sailor G