See! Two days! Exactly!

Ok, one thing before I continue. Because I don't really discuss it in future chapters, I have to explain why Kai was being an asshole. He's not really sure how to tell Rei how he feels, so he's trying to distance himself from Rei till he can be able to say what he really feels. Also... the reason he was ignoring Rei in the last chapter was because he wanted to be alone without Rei following him. And for the reason for that, you'll just have to read on...

Just so you know this is a very long chapter. Lots of shit happens in this one. Oh, and Rei's not the only Neko-jin in this story. I'm not pointing any fingers but I'm just going to say I don't do well with OC and if I have any they aren't named (most of the time). This Neko-jin is a friend. That's all I'll say for that.

Immortal Blood

Chapter 4: A Chibi Birthday (OR The Neko-jin Problem)

***

Kai woke up in the morning with a light weight on his chest. He rubbed his eyes and looked down to find a small lump in the sheets. It looked like someone put a ball under his covers. He lifted back the blankets and found a mess of raven hair, accentuated by a pair of pure white cat ears.

He frowned for a moment before sitting up and holding the thing in front of him. The creature squirmed a bit in his grasp before yawning and opening its wide amber eyes. The cat-chibi looked at Kai for a few moments before his lip began to quiver and he let out a soft whimper. Kai looked the child over and his eyes widened.

"Rei?" he asked. The kitten looked up at him, still sniffling and had tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. "What's wrong?" Kai asked, setting him down in his lap.

"Kai-san hates me." Rei replied in a voice that was slightly higher than Kai remembered it to be.

"Why would you say that?" he asked, wondering what would give Rei the impression he hated him. The cat sniffed once more in an effort to silence the sobs.

"You were angry with me yesterday." He replied. "You left me all by myself." He broke into another sob and hid his face in his paws.

"I'm sorry Rei-chan. I don't hate you." Kai explained. He patted Rei on the head lightly. "'Sokay." Rei looked back to Kai, his tears gone and stopped crying.

"Why would you care if I hated you?" Kai asked. The little Neko looked outraged and crossed his paws over his chest.

"Of course I care!" he exclaimed, hotly. "My heart would break into teeny pieces if you hated me." Kai was shocked.

"Why would your heart break?" he inquired, hoping to get to the core of Rei's feelings for him.

"Because I love you lots." Rei stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You do?" Kai stammered. He hadn't thought the small cat would get straight to the point so quickly.

"Hai." The Neko smiled proudly. "Why would I kiss you the way I do if I didn't love you?" he asked. He tilted his head to the side a bit and looked pointedly at Kai. He just smiled and didn't answer Rei's question.

"Aishiteru, Rei-chan." He whispered quietly and kissed the kitten on the nose. Rei giggled at the touch and grinned.

"Me too, Kai-san."

"Um... why are you a cat chibi?" Kai asked, directing Rei's attention to the more important issues. Rei looked down at his body and noted the stripped tail and the furry paws. He wrinkled his nose at Kai and shrugged.

"I don't know." He answered. "Before my mommy and daddy died they told me I was Neko-jin." Kai thought about this and nodded.

"Your immortal blood must have been unleashed on your birthday." At the mention of birthday, Rei's face lit up and he tuned into Kai's words.

"Yup. It's my birthday today... but I don't really think I'm supposed to be a chibi. No one ever told me about being a chibi too." Kai nodded and stood from his bed. He pointed a finger at the little cat and looked at him sternly.

"You stay here. I'll ask Kenny about this." He went to the door and left the room, making sure the door was properly shut. Rei was too short to be able to reach up to the handle to open it himself.

He went to Kenny's room and knocked lightly on the door.

"Kenny, may I ask you something?" he called, opening the door ajar a little bit. Kenny was still fast asleep. Kai walked into the room and shook Kenny awake.

"What is it?" Kenny mumbled, reaching for his glasses. "Kai? What are you doing here?" Kai crossed his arms firmly across his chest in an attempt to look serious.

"I need you to tell me everything you can on Neko-jin transformations." Kai informed.

"Neko-jins?" Kenny thought for a moment. "You mean people who turn into cats?"

"Hai." Kenny mumbled something to himself and pulled out his laptop. He typed a few keys and in seconds the information came up.

"Neko-jin are said to be able to transform at will into a cat form. Their changes don't occur until the day of their sixteenth birthday in which they spend the entire day in the form of a cat. After this, Neko-jin must transform once a month for 24 hours full unless they become rabid and uncontrollable." He read from the site he got it from.

"What about odd transformations?" Kai asked. Kenny scrolled down further.

"If the Neko-jin is weakened or injured at the time of their transformation they most likely are stuck in mid-transformation." He looked up, curiously at Kai. "Why did you wake me up at six in the morning to find out about this?" he asked, just as a blur of black and white pushed it's way into the room, launched itself onto Kenny's bed and began hopping. Kenny's gaze widened when he saw the creature. Kai just covered his eyes and groaned. Rei stopped jumping on the bed and looked up at Kai.

"What's wrong, Kai-san?" he asked in as cute a voice as he could manage.

"You were supposed to stay in our room." Kai lectured the chibi. "That's why the door was shut... wait a minute... how'd you get out?" he looked suspiciously at Rei. Rei smiled sweetly and thrusted his hands behind him in an effort to look cute.

"I got a chair and pushed it to the wall beside the door and *Poof!* I opened the door." He grinned at his own cleverness. Kenny was still adjusting his glasses.

"Rei?" he asked. "Is that you?" Rei turned around and bowed to his friend.

"Aa."

"Is this why you asked, Kai?" he turned to Kai who sighed.

"Hai." Kenny smiled at the cat.

"I never would have suspected Rei to be a Neko-jin, but it is his birthday today." Kai nodded and picked Rei up off the bed.

"Hai. Thank you for the information. I'll let you get back to sleep." Kai turned and walked to the door, but Kenny's voice stopped him.

"Kai? Do you know what caused Rei to become weak?" he asked, still smiling at Rei.

"He lost some blood the other day." He told Kenny.

"Oh, okay." Rei perked up and beamed at Kenny.

"Yeah, me's giving blood to Kai-san." He exclaimed. "He was really sick and me saved him." Kai was shocked.

"Rei!?" he cried. The kitten looked up at Kai in confusion.

"What?" he asked. "Oh... me's not supposed to tell Kai-san's secret. Sowwie." His ears fell to his head and he leaned down in shame. Kai sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm a vampire." He told Kenny, wanting him to know the whole truth. "The morning Rei found me I had collapsed from lack of blood. I had tried to sneak out to the blood bank to get some but fainted before I could get anywhere." Kenny looked at the pair, surprise plastered on his face.

"But... how?" he asked.

"All the myths about us are crap." He answered. Kenny was still looking at him warily. "I was turned by my grandfather. He forced me to bite one of our servants, but I've never bitten another person since... until Rei." Rei grinned, glad he wasn't in trouble.

"But Kai-san never turned me!" he cheered. "He says it's cause I'm a Neko- jin. Immortals don't turn."

"If you're thinking I'm going to bite you, you're mistaken." Kai decided to settle Kenny's fright. "I don't drink blood straight from people, and I won't turn someone or kill them." Kenny thought for a moment.

"Then how have you survived without blood?" he asked.

"I visit a blood bank every now and then. I can go up to a month and a half without a drink." Kenny's gaze went to the discarded newspaper on the nightstand.

"Was the recent break in... you?" he asked, trying to stay on Kai's good side.

"No, someone beat me to it." Kai lowered his gaze.

"Oh."

"I'll take Rei back to our room and let you sleep some more." He nodded to Kenny and went to the door.

"You know his transformation will last for a full day at least." Kenny added. Kai looked back and nodded.

"The others might not find out about you but they'll find out about him." Kai nodded again and opened the door again.

"Then let them." He said softly and walked back out of the room and headed to his own. He sat down in his bed and looked down at chibi Neko-jin Rei. He was fast asleep on his chest. Kai smiled inwardly and closed his eyes, too. It wasn't long before Kai was fast asleep.

***

When Kai awoke later that morning the first thing he noticed was that Rei had disappeared. He searched all over the room, but found no sign of him. The door was open a crack so he assumed Rei must be elsewhere in the cabin. He wandered out to the living room and the first thing he saw was Rei.

The second and third things were Takao and Max with Rei. They seemed to be playing monkey-in-the-middle with a ball of string and Rei pouncing back and forth between them, pawing at the loose ends. He had to admit that it did look pretty cute. Kenny was sitting in an armchair with his laptop and waved good morning.

"Kai-san!" Rei cried out in glee and raced over to him. He jumped into Kai's arms and began to lick his face.

"How come you left?" Kai asked, his tone dead serious. Rei sniffed and began to make his lip quiver. Kai softened and shook his head.

"I'm sorry for getting angry." He tried to soothe the cat. "I'm not really mad. I was just worried. A bit." Rei smiled and licked his cheek shyly again.

Takao was struck with an idea (And died immediately from electric shock) and went through to his room to get something. Kai and Rei don't even notice. Kai sat down on a recliner and Rei curled up in his lap. When Takao returned he was carrying their presents. Rei's face lit up when he saw them and immediately sat up straight. He had a slightly lop-sided grin on his face.

He handed each present to the one who wrapped it and gave his messy one to Rei first. Rei gave a squeal of delight and shook the box lightly. With his chibi form the box was easily as big as him.

"Happy birthday, Rei-chan." Takao grinned and sat on the sofa beside Max. Rei gave another happy cry and ripped into the wrapping. Paper flew everywhere as Rei got down to the box itself.

He lifted the lid of the box and pulled out a new headband and a pair of fingerless black fighting gloves. On the backs of them and in the center of the black headband was a green Yin-Yang symbol.

"Sugoi!!" he squealed and jumped down from Kai's lap and ran over to Takao. He climbed up to Takao's lap and flooded him with hugs and licks of delight. Takao laughed heartily and hugged Rei back.

"You're welcome." He giggled. Kai narrowed his eyes at the pair, unnoticed by anyone else.

Max leaned over and handed Rei his neater present. It was much bigger than Takao's and a lot heavier. Rei dragged it over to Kai's feet and tore into the wrapping.

He pulled out a bunch of smaller boxes without wrapping. He opened the first one and pulled out a black terry-cloth towel with a tiger in the corner that matched his trunks from the White Tigers. He smiled giddily and opened another box. In this one he found a picture frame with a picture of the entire Bladebreakers team. He smiled fondly when he saw Kai blushing slightly because Rei had his arm draped his arm over his shoulders and he was hugging him tightly. Placed in the corner of the frame was a small calling card with a few thousand yen on it. He looked up at Max questioningly.

"I thought you could use it during the tournament to make calls home." Rei nodded knowingly and squealed. He turned on the last box and opened it. It held a small pocket calendar with tons of tiger pictures on it. Rei chuckled in delight and enveloped Max in the same treatment that he had given Takao. Kai's eyes narrowed even further. He glared at Max before turning away from the scene.

Kenny tapped Rei on the shoulder and handed him the last present. It was small but terribly heavy and rattled when Rei shook it. Rei gave him a perplexed look and carefully unwrapped the box. When he pulled off the lid he gasped in shock. Inside the box was hundreds of spare blade parts and right in the middle of them all was a silver chain. He pulled it out and looked to Kenny.

"What's this for?" he asked, holding it up for Kenny to see. Kenny smiled.

"It's a chain for you to hang your bit-chip around your neck." He replied and picked up Driger to show. He dug out the beast and clipped it to the chain. Rei smiled and put the necklace on.

"Sugoi!!" he whispered and tackled Kenny with hugs and licks. Kenny laughed and patted Rei on the back. No one noticed Kai's glare now because his lids were so narrow no one could see his eyes. He stood up suddenly, attracting attention, and stormed to his room. Rei looked at his retreating form and tears came to his eyes. He sniffed loudly in hopes that it would make Kai turn around, but Kai acted like he didn't even hear him. He wiped his eyes and began to sob.

"Maybe he was feeling left out." Kenny told Rei. Rei stopped sobbing for a moment and looked up at Kenny.

"You think?" he asked. Kenny nodded. Rei was about to leap off the couch when Kai returned holding a large square box. It was covered in wrapping paper and had a large red bow on the top. Rei shot down and raced over to Kai, wailing. He grabbed hold of his pant leg tightly and began yelling at Kai for disappearing. Kai looked down and smiled. He leaned down and handed Rei the box. Rei was caught off guard and just stared at the gift. He took it and placed it beside him on the ground.

He lifted the gift-wrapped lid and discovered a box filled with tissue paper. He began digging through the box until he came to the real present. He pulled out a large, plush, stuffed, white tiger kitten. It had two shining amber eyes and a small ID bracelet around its neck that said 'REI' in bold letters. His mouth dropped open and he stared in awe at Kai. Kai smiled and crouched beside him. He unhooked the bracelet and handed it to Rei so he could read what was on the back. It said: "Happy Birthday, Rei- chan. Aishiteru, Kai. 2004." Rei turned his face to Kai after reading it and his expression of shock turned into sheer joy. He calmly climbed onto Kai's lap and gave him a tight hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he leant in farther and gave his ear a teasing nip.

"Hey!" Kai exclaimed. Rei giggled playfully. Kai grinned back and pulled out another box for Rei. It was small and fit nicely in the palm of Rei's hand. Rei opened the lid of this one and pulled out a long silver chain with "Tiger" written in Japanese as the ornament attached to it. He pulled it over his head and it dragged on the floor. He looked up at Kai with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I wish I was normal size so I could thank you properly." He whispered to Kai and smiled shyly.

Suddenly he shot up like a bolt of lightning and was now full size again and sitting in Kai's lap. He looked at himself and noticed he still had paws, cat ears and a now long and sleek tiger tail. Everyone stared at him in surprise.

"It must be a side effect from the weakened transformation." Kenny spoke up. Kai nodded but Rei just grinned. He wasn't going to waste his time with his granted wish. He slid off of Kai's lap and grinned slyly at him. Kai sweat dropped at his expression and leaned back just a bit. He didn't trust the mischievous glint in Rei's eyes.

Rei launched himself at Kai as hard and as fast as he could and tackled him to the floor they were already sitting on. He flooded Kai's senses with kiss after kiss until his lips finally locked with Kai's. Kai was surprised at this but kissed back with as much enthusiasm, ignoring the other people in the room. Kai wrapped his arms around Rei's waist and pressed their bodies together.

Takao and Max were thoroughly shocked, but Kenny assumed from his earlier encounter with the pair that there was something going on between them. Rei broke the passionate kiss, panting slightly.

"Thank you for the gifts." He whispered to Kai. He looked down to see Kai grinning like mad.

"No, thank you for that." Kai replied. Rei stood up and looked at himself properly. His long tiger tail and white ears were twitch on their own and he sniffed the air unconsciously.

"Did my wish do this?" he wondered aloud. Kai looked bewildered and shrugged at the question.

"Probably not." He answered. Rei smiled, not really caring and turned to his friends.

"Thank you all so much for making this one of the best birthdays I've ever had." He glanced at Kai and gave him a wink. "I'm hungry, does anyone else want some cereal?" he offered. They all shook their heads. They had all eaten before he got up. He turned and walked to the kitchen.

"Nice tail." Kai grinned, still sitting on the floor, his voice playful. Rei stopped and turned to look at him for a second. He shot him a glare and bared his fangs slightly. When he continued walking he gave his movements a bit more sway to emphasize his swaying tail.

"I like my tail, it's beautiful." He commented as he entered the kitchen.

"You're one vain little kitty." Kai laughed. Rei poked his head through the doorway and stuck out his tongue to Kai. Then he turned up his nose and went back to getting his cereal. He pulled out a box from a shelf and sat on the counter, munching on the little handfuls he pulled straight from the box.

***

Kai stood up and wiped off imaginary dust from his pants. He looked scornfully at the mess of paper Rei left in his wake and sighed. Takao and Max were already tidying up the presents and crumpling the large pieces of wrapping paper in little balls and throwing them at each other.

They all stopped what they were doing when they heard a muffled wail come from the kitchen. Only Rei was in there. They all decided to investigate and found chibi Rei sitting on the top of the counter, legs dangling over the edge, and his head stuck in the box of cereal he had been eating. He had his paws on the opening and was pushing with all his might, but the box wouldn't move. He let out another wail and called Kai's name.

"Hey, Rei." Kai spoke up. He stopped Rei's efforts and told him to stay still. "Turn your head to the side." He instructed. Rei did so, and the box slid off easily. He stopped crying and looked down past his knees. He sniffed one last time and held out his arms to Kai.

"I can't get down." He exclaimed and smiled shyly. Kai rolled his eyes and took Rei into his arms.

"It must be the fluctuations in his blood levels." Kenny spoke up. Everyone blinked at him and his use of big words. Kai shrugged in disinterest. He turned to look at Takao who was pulling faces for Rei.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked. Takao looked up.

"Trying to make him laugh." He said as if it were obvious. "Boo!" he tried a scary face. Rei pulled his own face and looked up at Kai.

"Why is 'Kao acting like a baka?" he asked. Kai smirked and shrugged.

"One of life's mysteries." He guessed. Takao face faulted. Max and Kenny burst out laughing.

"You are looking more cat-like than when you were a chibi the first time." Max pointed out when the laughter had died down. Kenny and Takao nodded. Rei smiled and snuggled into Kai's arms, nestling down like the Neko-jin he was. He let out a quick yawn and fell asleep.

***

When Rei woke up later that day to find he had been put back to bed. He walked through to the living room to find the lodge empty. He heard shouts coming from outside and letting his curiosity get the best of him, he investigated. He peeked outside and found Max and Takao having a practice battle with Kai and Kenny watching them. Kai was standing near the cabin with his back to Rei.

Trying to be as quiet as possible, Rei tiptoed over to Kai and squatted behind his legs. He then began swatting at Kai's long white scarf, flinging it back and forth. Kai felt his scarf moving and turned around to see Rei. Rei smiled sweetly and held up his hands for Kai to pick him up. Kai bent down and pulled Rei into his arms. Rei scrambled out of his grasp and crawled onto his shoulders to get a better view of the match. He had to lean over Kai's head to hold down his hair.

"Okay, Kai." Takao announced when him and Max had finished their match. "It's your turn."

"I wanna blade too." Rei whined and knocked lightly on Kai's head to attract his attention. Kai shook his head. He felt Rei was at an unfair disadvantage facing Kai.

"Why not, Kai?" Rei asked. "I can still blade. Just you watch... I'm gonna beat you with my eyes closed." He retorted and jumped off Kai's shoulders. Kai sighed and stepped up to the dish. Takao began the countdown.

"Three."

"Two."

"One. Let it RIP!!" he cried and they both launched their blades. Rei stayed true to his word and closed his eyes. A serene smile made its way onto Rei's face as he began to rock side to side, in rhythm with his blade. Kai started to get a little nervous, not wanting to beat Rei unfairly. Dranzer swerved to avoid colliding with Driger. Suddenly out of nowhere Driger began zipping around the dish and bouncing off the sides. Both blader and bit-beast were taken by surprise when Driger purposely slammed into Dranzer on every few bounces. The attacks were so random that Kai could do nothing but defend. He looked up to se a smirk cross Rei's face, though his eyes never opened.

"Dranzer, attack!" he cried, trying to save some face in his match. The corner of Rei's mouth twitched as Dranzer tried in vain to cause the tiger some damage, but Driger managed to swerve around and hit the phoenix. Again, and again, and again. Kai was getting frustrated, seeing that Dranzer was loosing steam and called on his final attack.

"Go, Dranzer!" he called, but Dranzer couldn't take anymore and rolled to a stop in the centre of the dish. Rei meowed in joy and pumped a fist into the air at his win.

"How'd you do it?" Kai asked, picking up his blade. Driger jumped back to Rei and the chibi looked at Kai and shrugged.

"I'm a tiger like him." He guessed and cracked a smile. Kai was stunned. Rei hadn't opened his eyes or spoken a word during the entire match.

Suddenly a knock sounded from the door. Kai was startled out of his stupor and looked worriedly at Rei.

"Go to our room until I get rid of these people." He ordered. He didn't want to have to explain what Rei was doing as half a child and half cat. Rei's ears flattened to his head and he slunk down the hall. Kai opened the door to reveal the White Tiger team.

"Hey, Kai!" Li greeted. Kai grunted, but refused to open the door to invite them in.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, snippily. His rudeness didn't seem to faze them.

"It's Rei's birthday, baka." Mariah exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. "We're here to say 'happy birthday'. That's what friends do." She threw the last one in Kai's face, knowing how anti-social Kai was likely to be after two years.

"And we came to see if Rei got our gifts." Kevin added, poking his head out from behind Gary.

"He's not here right now, but I'll tell him you came. I'm sure he liked his gifts very much." He moved to shut the door rudely in their faces, when a little, white blur rushed past him for the second time that day, spoiling his lies. Rei bounded out the door and jumped straight into Li's arms.

Li was stunned, but laughed heartily when Rei gave him a lick on the cheek. Kai narrowed his eyes at Rei's display of affection. Mariah gave a squeal when she saw how cute Rei was. Max pushed past Kai and invited them all in, since they now knew about chibi Neko-jin Rei. Kai took Rei from Li's grasp as the pulled their bags into the lodge. Rei was surprised at Kai's harshness and began to sniff.

"Li!" he wailed before breaking into heart-wrenching sobs. Kai immediately felt awful and handed Rei back to Li. Rei stopped crying and looked to Kai to thank him, but stopped when he saw the conflict in his eyes. Kai looked as though he thought Rei liked Li more than he liked Kai. Rei looked pleadingly at Kai.

"What?" Kai asked, trying to cover up his slip of emotions with a wall. Kai sat down on the floor, while Li sat next to him on the sofa. As soon as everyone was seated, Rei scrambled out of Li's hands and walked over to Kai. He looked at Kai for a moment, before shyly licking the side of Kai's face. Kai looked back at him, stunned. He offered Rei a small smile. Rei instantly cheered up and curled up into Kai's lap.

"What happened to Rei?" Li asked, wondering what the hell was going on. Kenny explained about Rei being a Neko-jin and that because he was a bit weak during the transformation he was caught in between. The White Tigers nodded in understanding. Li began to smirk and Mariah rolled her eyes at him.

"Here we go." She muttered under her breath as Li began to change. Within seconds, where Li sat now stood a full grown black lion. He looked remarkably similar to his bit-beast Galleon. He paced over to where Rei sat in Kai's lap and nudged him playfully, before growling a low challenge. Rei's eyes widen in delight to have another playmate, but then he remembered Kai's earlier response to Li. He looked up to see what Kai looked like now. Kai nodded and smiled, letting him go with Li. Li and Rei bounded outside wile the rest of them were left to catch up.

"He's been waiting for the right excuse to do that." Mariah laughed. "He's a Neko-jin too." She explained.

***

Meanwhile, Rei was having a difficult time translating Li's growls, snarls and mews. He looked like he was trying to suggest something.

"What?" Rei asked. Li began to use his paws to help Rei understand. He raised a paw to his face and covered his eyes, burying his head underneath. Rei cocked his head to the side and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"You're hiding? OH! Hide-and-seek!" Rei cried when he finally understood. Li jumped up and grinned when Rei figured it out. They began to run all over the place, alternating turns.

On one of Rei's turns to 'seek', Rei purposely skipped a few numbers to find Li faster. He peeked through his hands in time to see a long black tail disappear around another lodge. He ran after it, but when he rounded the corner he didn't see Li anywhere. He kept wandering until he found himself amongst a crowd of drunk college students who had been throwing a party that night. Rei knew he was in trouble when the first set of eyes fell on him. A young man with black hair spotted him and put down his beer. Rei tried to back up and run away from these people, but his little legs wouldn't move fast enough to escape the man's grasp. The guy grabbed him by his collar and pulled him into the middle of the party.

While Rei tried to wriggle out of their grasp, they began to poke and prod his tiny figure. The guy who grabbed him pulled out a small pocket knife and flicked out the blade. Rei mewed in fright and closed his eyes.

"Why don't we give the kitty a 'haircut'." He laughed, taking another swig of his beer. The crowd cheered and laughed in response and the man came closer.

Li, who had been hiding from Rei on the roof saw all of this happening and got very angry. He jumped from his hiding spot and landed on the guy with the knife. Everyone jumped back in surprise and the smart ones ran. He shot a glare to the ones too drunk to realise what he was and bared his teeth. He crouched low and snarled as he leapt at the girl who was still holding Rei. She jumped back immediately and dropped Rei to the soft grass. Rei watched as Li proceeded to scare of the rest of the students. When everyone was gone, he turned back to Rei, but the chibi mewed again in fright. Behind him was the guy with the knife and he was about to jump on Li's back and slice him up. Li turned and tried to defend himself. Luckily the guy was too intoxicated to try to fight properly and ended up passing out, but he did manage to snag Li's flesh a couple of times and many of the cuts were deep and overflowing with blood.

A couple more students came back to watch the fight and one of the guy's friends pulled out a gun and wobbly raised it to take aim on Li. Li saw the guy and roared his loudest and bared his teeth, hoping the guy would just leave them alone, but he pulled the trigger.

***

"What the hell was that?" Mariah screamed, as another shot sounded and a loud roar echoed outside. She recognised the cry immediately and ran outside, frantic. Kai, sensing that this might have to do with Rei and Li, was right behind her, trying to calm his worries. Everyone else followed. They followed where the shots came from and found Rei dragging Li's large heavy body back to the cabin, his mouth clamped over Li's ear. Li wasn't moving and Rei was sobbing hysterically. There was no one else there.

Mariah dashed to Li's side and hugged his limp body. Rei let go of the ear, finally, and curled up into a ball near his head. Kai went to Rei's side and lifted him up, into his arms. "What happened?" he asked, gently. Rei sniffed and buried his head in Kai's chest. Kai softly patted his head in an effort to calm him down.

"We were just playing hide-and seek and these people were here." Rei explained. "They were really drunk and pulled a knife on me... but Li saved me by trying to scare them off. But he got hurt. One of the drunk men had a gun and they shot Li." He began to sob into Kai's shirt once more. Mariah let out a sigh of relief.

"He didn't get shot." She told them. "One of the bullets grazed his neck and the other one is no where to be seen. He's going to be just fine." She smiled. Gary walked over and gently picked the lion up into his burly arms. They all walked back to the Bladebreakers' lodge.

While Mariah was cleaning Li's wounds (which he unfortunately woke up for... ouch!) Kai was curled up on the sofa with Rei on his lap. Rei was fast asleep already and Kai, who was absent-mindedly playing with a strand of Rei's hair, was slowly drifting off.

Takao had offered to house the White Tigers for the night and Kai and Rei had given up their beds to Kevin and Gary. Mariah and Li would sleep on the floor in the living room with Kai and Rei.

Before he fell asleep, Rei had walked over to Mariah and apologised for getting Li hurt. She smiled at him and gave him a little chuckle. Ruffling his hair, she told him it hadn't been anyone's fault except the drunk students and then started muttering curses under her breath. Rei felt a little better, being relieved of the responsibility and curled up in Kai's arms once more.

"Happy Birthday, Rei-chan." Kai whispered, stifling a yawn, knowing he couldn't fight of sleep any longer. "And what an interesting one it's been." He gave a slight smirk before finally surrendering and letting his dreams take him.

~Finis (Oyasumi!!)

I sort of changed the ending a tiny bit, because it was a little bit awkward the way I had it before. I really hope you like this chapter because it's the last one for a while. It took me a long time to finally finish it (a little disease called 'Procrastination') and it's also (as promised) a very very long chapter (10 pgs before I added the spacing for ff.n= 6500 words!! With spacing it's 14 pgs). I'm not going to post the next chapter for a while as it's similar in length to this one, only a little shorter. It takes place the day after Rei's birthday and a lot more interesting things happen. I know that I stray from Kai's vampie situation, but in chapie seven or eight it'll come up again.

Chapter 5: The Day After (OR Mariah's Worst Mistake) Teaser:

"When did you find out about Li being a Neko-jin?" Kai tried to start a conversation. Mariah smiled and picked up a blade of grass.

"He told me the day before his birthday." She replied, twirling the grass between her fingers. Kai nodded.

"How did you take it?"

"Very well." She lay back in the grass to look up at the blue sky. "Until his birthday. I don't really think I believed him, until I saw it with my own eyes." She laughed, remembering what had happened.

"What did you do?" Kai asked, semi-interested in how she took it.

"I think I screamed. This caused him to run because no one else knew." They both laughed. Mariah looked up at him.

"When did you find out?" she asked him. He stopped laughing and thought back. "Rei told me three days ago." He replied. "I guess I never believed him either, but he didn't know anything about being a Neko-jin, so I wasn't prepared for anything." Mariah nodded and closed her eyes, allowing a warm breeze wash over her.

"What did you do when he transformed?"

"I panicked." Kai smiled. "I told him to stay in my room and shut the door behind me and went straight to Kenny for answers. Of course the door was no problem for Rei and he broke out and came bounding into Kenny's room. That's how everyone else eventually found out." Mariah chuckled at the image she had in her mind.

"Ah. Rei's always been one to go against orders. He'll go out of his way to disobey them." She told Kai. Kai snorted.

"I could tell." He exclaimed. "He tries to look innocent when you try to reprimand him, too."

"Oh, yeah. I've seen that look too often. I just wish I could say no to it."

"Yeah." Kai sighed and lay down beside Mariah in the grass. Mariah turned her head to look at Kai in his peacefulness. He seemed to be completely at ease. Not a muscle in his body was tense. She smiled at him.

"You know, you're a really nice guy when you're not guarding yourself against other people." She told him, sitting up. She was still looking at him. He opened his eyes and looked at her sternly.

"Really?" he asked, not sure if she was being truthful or sincere. She smiled and leaned closer.

"Yeah." Kai was too surprised that someone actually thought he was nice to notice what Mariah was doing. She leaned down and placed a kiss on his lips...

Suddenly, from behind them, Rei leapt out of the trees and, landing between her and Kai, he snarled at her, crouching low to the ground. She immediately scrambled a few feet away from him. He had his teeth bared violently and every hair on his body was standing on end in anger. His eyes were narrowed to slits and he growled. Her eyes widened and she gasped.

"Gomen nasai." She cried, holding her hands up to protect herself. "It was a spur of the moment thing." Rei, still snarling, stepped forward, his muscles tensing as if he was going to attack her. She shifted back again, a strangled cry escaping her throat...

They were looking to draw blood from this fight...

***

There we go. That's the most you'll get for a while. This should tide you over for a bit while I try and write up jot notes for chapter eight, nine and ten. I'm not sure how many chapters this story will be, but I know exactly how I'm gonna end it, so I just have to work my way up to it. I think I'm gonna end it in the middle of the Asian tournie, but we'll see.

I also have a sequel idea in the makings for this story too, but nothing has been finalized... well, except for the title. It'll be called The Biovolt Project.

Please review... or e-mail me. I've said it enough times... anywayz... ja ne!!!