"Why do you have six cards?"

Shuffle, shuffle. "Eh? Whaddya mean?"

A long pause. "Tyson, you can't have six cards. This is a five card game."

Another long pause. "Oh?"

Max sighed wearily, rubbing a hand over his face before shaking his head at his dark-haired friend. Tyson sniffed, placing his cards face down on the card table. "This game has too many rules," he announced, standing up. "I'm quitting. And—eh—going for a walk."

Kenny raised an eyebrow from over the top of his own cards. "You're going for a walk?" he repeated, blinking. "Let me get this straight; you're going for a walk while there is a blizzard going on outside? Not only that, it's the same blizzard that had our tournament canceled for tomorrow morning."

"I like walking in blizzards," Tyson retorted, backing away towards the door. "They make things, um, interesting."

"You're going to get lost," Max stated in a singsong voice, smiling lightly.

"I'm just going to go walking around the hotel," Tyson sniffed. "Don't worry. I'll um be back in a while. Ormaybeaweekorsoorsomething."

Max opened his mouth to reply but the other had already yanked on his coat and shoes and shot through the door. The blond rolled his eyes, looking over to Kenny. "What's up with him?" he asked, flicking a piece of hair from his eyes.

"I don't know," Kenny mumbled, glancing to Tyson's forgotten cards on the table. "Look at his cards. It wouldn't matter anymore."

Max nodded slightly, reaching over and placing the tips of his fingers on the cards and dragging them over to him before picking them up.

Silence.

"The cheat!" Max shot up from his chair, knocking the chair backwards. "He had five aces! He had hidden cards but he got in too deep. That's why he ran."

Kenny raised his eyes from his own deck, frowning at the seething blond. 'Man, I didn't know Max could get so angry about a card game,' he thought, resisting the urge to snicker.

* * *

Tyson walked quickly down the ice-paved cement that circled around the hotel, trying to get as far away from his room as he could before Max found out about those damned aces. 'It's not my fault, really,' he told himself. 'I just have, uh, an obsession to cheating when it comes to playing cards. I can't be blamed.'

'Yep, sure, right.' a small part of his mind said sarcastically. 'And I suppose you're never to blame, right?' (1)

Tyson sniffed, ignoring his conscious and trying to sink lower into his coat and get away from the bitter cold. He figured his face was flushed from the wind that kept brushing past him every five seconds but he didn't care. He knew he'd have to go back sometime but he'd just wait for Max to cool down. He knew he got touchy about these kinds of things from the last time they were playing, minus Kenny.

"What are you doing, Tyson?" The sound of the cool, familiar voice caused the teen to stop in his tracks.

Tyson looked up, squinting against the glare of the heavy snow falling to find Kai standing at the open doorway of his hotel room. 'I must've gone pretty far in a short amount of time,' Tyson thought, blinking. 'Rei's and Kai's room is all the way on the other side of the hotel.'

'But you were basically running from Max, remember?' that voice said again.

Once again, the dark-haired teen ignored it, staring blankly at Kai. "Um, going for a walk?" he replied lamely, offering a weak smile.

Kai's expression remained impassive. "A walk?"

"Yep," He tossed a gloved hand around him. "It's, er, lovely out."

"Lovely," he repeated, smirking. "In a miserable kind of way, I take it?"

Tyson shrugged, remaining silent. Kai wasn't moving either, and kind of had this expecting look on his face. After a moment, the shorter boy sighed, running a hand through his messy locks. "Okay, fine," Tyson grumbled. "I'm actually—well, kind of---running from Max. Because I kind of—not really, though—cheated at a card game. And he gets really mad about things like that so I had to make a quit exit…"

"Really?" Kai sighed, folding his arms across his chest. "Come in."

"What?!" Tyson facefaulted, almost falling over.

The stoic teen raised a slow, steady eyebrow. "Come inside," he said again. "I know you're too much of a coward to go back to your own room and face Max—which I might add, is pretty pathetic since he's probably not all that strong—"

"That's what you think," Tyson muttered.

"—and I don't want you wandering around like an idiot outside and getting sick." He continued, leaning against the doorframe. "We may just have that tournament tomorrow."

"I thought it was canceled," Tyson murmured, brushing past Kai and into the warm, dimly lit hotel room.

"It was," Kai said, closing the door behind him. "But this thing may pass and they may reschedule it."

"You're being strangely generous tonight," Tyson said, sliding off his coat and placing it on the back of a chair. "And where's Rei?"

"Hn," Kai was busy digging around in the cooler he brought for something. "He has a different room."

"Oh," Tyson's browns knit together in confusion. "I thought you two were sharing a room?"

"Things change," he responded simply, coming to a stand again and facing him.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence, then and Tyson shuffled silently at his standing spot, glancing from his feet to the wall and then, briefly, to Kai. He stood there for another minute before a slow smile spread on his face and he picked up his coat again, fishing around in one of the pockets. After a second, he pulled out a box and, after Kai had looked more closely, he found that it was a deck of cards.

"Wanna play?" he asked, plopping down on the carpeted floor.

Kai looked at him blankly. "Which game?"

Tyson blinked in surprise; he figured Kai would just be blunt and say 'no' right away. "I don't know," Tyson said slowly. "What games do you know?"

Kai was silent for a long, long time.

"I only know two," he said, finally.

Tyson let out a quiet sigh, shaking his head. "Which two?" he inquired.

"Poker," the blue-haired teen began casually, making his way over to where Tyson sat.

"And…?"

"Strip poker."

Silence.

"O-oh. I-I—uh—see."

Kai smirked. The younger teen looked extremely flushed. And here he thought it was hard to get him embarrassed. Kai crouched down, catching Tyson's gaze, and murmuring, "Nothing wrong, is there?"

"Oh—uh, no!" Tyson said quickly, trying to compose himself. "Uh, er, well, um. Which game do you—uh—want to play?"

"Whichever," He sat down across from him. "It doesn't matter to me."

"Me either," he said softly, placing the cards down beside him.

Yet another long, rather uncomfortable (at least to Tyson) silence.

"Okay, then," Tyson started, flicking a piece of hair from his eyes. "Why don't we—erm—make things interesting and just play strip poker?"

Kai lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug. "Your call," he said smoothly. "You're the one with the cards."

Tyson scratched the back of his head, leaning back against the bed behind him. "I've never really played it before, though…"

"It's simple," Kai said lightly, leaning over and taking the deck of cards into his hands. "It's like poker, only if you lose the bet then you give the opponent a piece of your clothing. You can keep playing once you've lost all your clothing, but we're just going to say that you can't this time, okay?"

Tyson swallowed nervously. "Okay."

"Don't look so afraid," he said softly, smirking. "You're the one who wanted to play it, and I promise I'll find some way to control myself and not jump you."

Tyson narrowed his eyes, sniffing and folding his legs. "Haha. Real funny, O-sarcastic-one."

Tyson watched in silence as Kai shuffled the deck before passing five cards, face down, to himself and then to the other. After a moment, Kai sat back, placing the remaining cards by his side. "You ready?" he asked, looking up at him a second later.

The other nodded silently.

"Wait—just a second," Kai stood back up, going over to the cooler, opening it up, and pulled out a box of something. Tyson blinked, squinting.

"Goldfish?" he said after a moment. "We're betting with Gold Fish."

"Pretend it's money," he muttered, sitting back down. "I don't want to bet with real money, anyway. I don't think you would either."

Tyson shook his head, snickering. "I didn't know you liked Gold Fish…"

"There's a lot you don't know," Kai said easily. "Okay, there's three kind of Gold Fish in this box. White cheddar, extra cheddar, and original. White cheddar is one hundred. Extra cheddar is two hundred. And original is three hundred. We each get three of each kind. You with me so far?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said idly, blinking again.

"Then lets start," Kai murmured after passing out the Gold Fish, picking up his cards. "I'll put in a two-hundred."

Tyson watched as he tossed a "one-hundred chip" in-between the middle of them on the floor. He picked up his own cards and frowned, chewing on his bottom lip. He did not have a good hand: a two of hearts, a two of spades, a five of spades, a jack of diamonds, and a seven of hearts.

"Um, I'll place a one-hundred," he said, pushing the Gold Fish into the "pot".

"I'm going to raise another one-hundred, then," Kai said simply, tossing another Gold Fish into the pot.

"Er, fold," Tyson said, swallowing and shaking his head.

"Okay," Kai sighed, placing down his cards face-up.

He had a straight flush.

"Damnit," Tyson hissed beneath his breath.

Yep, he knew it. He was going to lose this hand.

Reluctantly, he placed down his hand, as well. Kai smirked, picking up the Gold Fish that had been in the pot and placing it behind his other ones. "I win this hand," he said calmly, looking at the other expectantly.

"Um, yeah," He ran a hand through his hair. "Do I, uh, take off a piece of clothing now?"

"That'd be the idea."

Tyson glanced down to his wrists, checking to see if he had a watch on. But he didn't. He really didn't think he would, either. He had one, but he never wore it. Damn his lack of wanting to know what time it was. But he did happen to still have his shoes on. Triumphantly, he yanked the shoe off.

"This isn't over yet," he growled, tossing the shoe behind him. "Deal the cards again."

With his infamous smirk plastering his face, Kai did.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, a very pissed off shirtless, shoeless, and sockless Tyson still sat across from Kai, not moving his position since they first started. Kai, on the other hand, sat fully dressed, an annoying look on his face that clearly read 'I'm-better-than-you-are'.

"This is stupid," Tyson mumbled, clenching his hand into a tight fight. "Deal the cards again, damnit."

"You're sure?" Kai asked, though it sounded as if he didn't really care. "You might lose your pants if I win. Literally."

Tyson leant foreword, practically grinding the words out as he spoke, "Deal. The. God. Damned. Cards. Kai."

Kai shrugged, remaining impossibly calm, and dealt the cards again. Tyson picked up his hand, and upon seeing it, let out an involuntary groan. What was with these damned cards? Why was he always getting a bad hand?

"I'll put in—" Tyson started but cut off with a loud shriek when the lights flickered and then went out.

Kai practically pounced on Tyson, clamping a hand over his mouth to cut off his screams. "Shut up, Tyson," he hissed in his ear. "You're going to wake someone from another room up. The power probably went out because of the storm. Just calm the hell down."

Tyson breathed slowly and shakily, his fingers digging into the material of Kai's shirt. He did not deal well with dark. Or this extreme darkness that had cast itself over the room. He could barely see an inch in front of him, but he could make out Kai's crimson eyes darting around the room. After a moment, he felt the body weight on top of him move and heard some more shuffling around in the room.

"What—what are you doing?" Tyson asked, his voice barely audible.

Kai didn't respond for a moment. "Looking for a flashlight," he said. "I know I saw one in one of these dresser drawers when I first checked in…"

There was another minute of drawers opening and closing before a long pause. After a second, a small ray of light flickered on. Tyson slowly came to a stand, inching closer to Kai and taking a cautious glance around him. "Maybe we should go check on the others'," he murmured to the taller teen next to him.

"No, I don't think so," Kai responded, shaking his head. "If the storm was this strong to knock out the electricity, than I don't think it'd be wise to go outside again."

"But still…" Tyson trailed off with a sigh, nibbling lightly on his lower lip.

"It's best if we stay where we are, Tyson," Kai said again, firmly. Reluctantly, he nodded.

There was yet another silence.

"It's going to get cold," Tyson stated.

"Put your shirt back on," Kai muttered, turning his back again and looking through the drawers some more, the flashlight still in his hand.

"I don't think I can find it in this little of light," he said, blinking and looking around the room again. "I threw it somewhere."

"Then put your coat on."

Tyson nodded slowly, feeling around for the chair that had his coat. After a second, he found it and slipped it on. It wasn't much warmer since it had gotten wet from the snow when he was outside, but it was better than nothing was. He pulled the chair around and sat down, bringing his knees to his chest and watching Kai in silence.

The two said nothing for a long time; Tyson sitting in his chair, and Kai searching for another light source. The usually bubbly, energetic teen was more silent than usual and could feel already that the room was growing colder. Kai, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice and if he did, he didn't say anything about it.

Tyson frowned, resting his head on his knees and closing his eyes. Kai was acting different. Not as cold or stoic, almost. It wasn't like he was complaining, but it was strange and slightly uncomfortable to have him like this. He just gave off this mellow, calm air unlike his usual icy one.

'It's not like the guy can't be relaxed once in awhile, y'know,' he reminded himself. 'I'm sure he doesn't act like a cold bastard 24/7.'

"Tyson, damnit, are you listening to me?" Kai's clearly pissed off voice brought him back to reality. "I really don't want to have to ask you again."

'Or maybe he does.' he thought, wryly.

"What?" Tyson snapped, coming to a stand.

"Come here," the blue-haired teen bit out, obviously his patience wasted.

Tyson rolled his eyes but did as he was told; taking his place by the taller boy. "Okay, now what?"

"I need you to hold this cabinet door open for me," he said softly, peering over the glossy wood, "while I look inside to see if there's another flashlight."

Sighing, Tyson pulled open the cabinet door, waiting rather testily as the other searched it. After a minute of his searching, Tyson grew annoyed, his headache already cited and growing with each loud ruffling noise Kai made. He started humming, rather loudly, just to see if he could piss the other off.

It worked.

The ruffling paused. "Would you stop that?" came the annoyed snap from Kai.

"Stop what?" Tyson asked innocently before going back to his humming.

"Stop humming."

"Oh, sorry."

"…Hn."

Ruffle, ruffle, ruffle. Tap, tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap. Scuffle, scuffle, scuffle. Hum, hum, hum.

"Tyson! Knock it off!"

"Knock what off?"

"That damned humming!"

"Sorry. I guess I was doing it self-consciously or something."

Scuffle, scuffle, scuffle. Tap, tap, tapity, tap.

Hum, hum, hum.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. Hum, hum, hum.

TaptaptaptaptapTAPITYTAP.

…Hum, hum, hum.

"Damnit!" Kai growled, whirling around and grabbing Tyson by the shoulder, shoving him back into the nearest wall. "You're really apt to pissing people off, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Tyson said, innocently.

"Just—shut up," Kai hissed, his hand coming across the back of Tyson's neck and digging his fingers into the soft skin. "Do you ever just shut the hell up?"

"Depends on who I'm talking to," he replied sharply. "And when it comes to you? No. I don't. You want to know why? Because I have to defend myself every goddamned minute when I'm talking to you. So I figure if I keep talking, maybe in turns, you won't say anything that'll piss me the hell off. And you think you're the only one who gets pissed off and annoyed easily? No, Kai. It's not all about you. I do have a tendency of having a really bad temper when people provoke me."

"I'm warning you…" Kai began, his voice bordering dangerously low.

"I don't care if you're warning me!" He was shouting now. "You don't scare me, okay? You do not scare me. You don't know jack shit about me, Kai. You don't know jack shit about any of your teammates! All you do is sit in some corner and act all high-and-mighty-and-on-your-throne. Maybe if you learned some actual social skills, you'd find out that's not the way to make friends."

"Who said I needed you?" he whispered, his hand tightening across Tyson's neck. "Who said I needed any of you?"

"I don't know," the other whispered back. "You tell me."

With a frustrated growl, Kai's hand slip up to the back of Tyson's head, and the other slipped down to the small of his back. Pushing him foreword, Kai lowered his head, crushing his lips against the shorter boy's. Tyson stiffened rather suddenly in surprise, choking back a startled cry.

Kai worked his lips against Tyson's, running his tongue along his bottom lip before biting down rather roughly in the same place. After Kai pulled back, Tyson sucked in a gasp of air, his forehead pressed against Kai's. "What—what in hell was that?" Tyson panted.

"You tell me," Kai murmured, closing his eyes.

"You're the one who did it," he said, defensively.

"You're the one who provoked me enough to do it," Kai snapped back.

"Ugh, there you go again," Tyson said, disgusted. "Blaming everything on other people—"

Kai cut Tyson off by capturing his lips with his own again, and pulled him away from the wall. They stumbled backwards, still kissing, and once the back of Kai's legs caught against the edge of the bed, went sprawling back on the mattress with Tyson on top of the other. "What are we doing?" Tyson said, once the kiss was broken.

"I don't know," Kai muttered, grabbing Tyson by the shoulders and managing to turn them both over so he was on top of him. "And at this point, I really don't care."

"Typical—mmff!" Tyson was muffled yet again when Kai decided to take his chance and press his lips against his own, sliding his tongue into the shorter teen's mouth.

Kai ran a hand down the side of Tyson's bare stomach, stopping to rest at his hips. After a second, the two pulled apart and Kai ducked his head, pushing his lips against the base of Tyson's neck. Tyson, on the other hand, was still trying to get a hold of things (2) and was also gasping for air.

"You're…suffocating…me…" he managed out, gripping at the shirt of the boy who was on top of him.

"It's all in your head," Kai muttered before going back to nibbling on the soft flesh of his neck.

"I don't think it is, Kai," Tyson swallowed, bringing up a hand to rub his eye. "Here—just wait a second, will you?"

Tyson pulled Kai back up to him by the collar of his shirt, and then somehow managed to flip him over so he was on top again, straddling the taller boy. "There," Tyson breathed a sigh of relief. "I can breathe again!"

"…There's a problem with this," Kai grumbled, placing a hand on Tyson's side and pushing him off of him. "I'm really not up for being your bitch."

"Oomf!" Tyson landed on his side on the bed with Kai crawling back on top of him. "But I can't breathe down here…"

"Stop whining," Kai muttered, kissing him again. "I'll breathe for you."

"Kai—really, stop being so difficult." More ruffling of sheets and clothes, followed by another 'oomph!' and voi-la, Tyson was sitting on top of the very annoyed Kai again.

"I'm really not going to do it like this, Tyson," Yet more ruffling of sheets and clothes, followed by yet another 'oomph!' and then magically Kai appeared on top of the other again.

"Damn you, Kai."

"Oomph!"

"Damn you, Tyson!"

"Oomph!"

"It doesn't work like this…oomph!"

"Yes it does, Tyson!"

"Oomph!"

"Stop being a jackass, Kai!"

"Oomph!"

"Maybe if you stop being one first!"

"Oomph!"

The two paused in their struggling with each other for a moment when the lights flickered on suddenly. Kai had a hand wrapped in Tyson's hair, and was lying in an uncomfortable position across the boy. Tyson had his hand pushed up against Kai's face in a lame attempt to get him off of him.

"I guess they fixed the lights…" Kai said, but trailed off when the hotel door swung open.

Max and Kenny and the hotel manager hustled in, not bothering to shut the door behind them. "Kai, we were wondering if you happened to see Tyson—" Kenny stopped mid-sentence, his jaw dropping at the sight before him.

Max flushed a lovely shade of red, backing away out of the room without even a word. Kenny and the hotel manager, on the other hand, stood gaping at the two on the bed. A second or two later, Max shuffled back in, gently grabbing the hotel manager and his brown-haired from by the arm and dragging them from the room, promptly closing the door as they left.

Tyson stared at the spot where the three once stood, his own mouth falling open. "Shit," he muttered.

"Hey, um, I'm sure they just figured we were busy," Kai said, also staring over his shoulder at the door.

"Yeah, busy, that's what I'm afraid of." Tyson managed to push Kai off of him this time, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Another long silence filled the room.

"So," Kai began slowly, "what do you want to do now?"

"Card game?" the other suggested.

"Strip poker?"

"Again…? Whatever. Why not?"

"Okay," Kai slid off the bed and onto the floor with a smirk. "If I win, then I get to be on top. If you win, then you get to be on top. Deal?"

Tyson met Kai's gaze levelly, a small grin pulling at his lips. Taking the outstretched hand in his own, he nodded, "Yeah, deal."

Smiling softly, Kai began to shuffle the cards.

"Hey, Tyson," he said suddenly. "Want to get a couple of bottled waters out of the cooler?"

Tyson blinked, nodding. "Okay…sure." (3)

Once the other had gone over to the cooler and had his back turned, Kai dealt the cards. And making sure Tyson had exactly what he had the first round they had played: a two of hearts, a two of spades, a five of spades, a jack of diamonds, and a seven of hearts.

Tyson came back a minute later, handing Kai his bottled water and taking his seat again. After the two had placed their "money" into the pot, Kai nodded in signal for both of them to look at their hands.

Holding back a snicker, Kai peered over the top of his cards as Tyson picked up his own.

"…I don't believe this!"

Hiding a smile, Kai placed down his cards.

He had a pair.

1: Why does it seem I always make Tyson have a disembodied voice in his head? X_x;

2: He's so slow. XD

3: Heh. Bad mistake.