Paradise Lost…
Author's notes: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU~~~!!! I feel so totally blessed by all of you who managed to stick to my novel through thick and thin! Again, ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHITA, MINNA-SAN~~~~!!! Special mention to A-leng! THANK YOU! J
Lei was quiet, looking outside the huge floor to ceiling windows of the dining room, when the guests came piling in. Llewelyn and Lee were bickering like a bunch of 2 year-olds, and Chairman Daitenji was just laughing at their antics. Pierre, Giovanni, Kieran, Alphonse and Sigurd were talking to Takao and Max. Kai was just quiet. Tsukiyo was blinking, and…
Asaya was SNIFFLING?!
"LEI!" Takao exclaims, waving his arms at him. "Hey, are you ALRIGHT?! That Shao sure one-upped US real GOOD~~~"
"What happened to ASAYA?!" Lei asked him, his amber yellow eyes wide.
"Oh, that." Takao sighed. "She just burst into tears when she saw Lee. Apparently, Lee's also an –Auran-, and the last time they met was a good 10 years ago."
"Nah, Lee left them 10 years ago," Max corrected him. "I guess Lee had been there ever since Asaya was taken into the Guild, and she looks up to him like an older brother. As with Llewelyn."
"…I see." Lei became quiet.
"OK, seat yourselves according to eating disorders," Lee told the Bey Masters Team (the guys, anyway). "I trust Llewelyn's still the bottomless pit of the whole lot, the last time I remembered…"
"And you're sitting right next to ME," Llewelyn retorted. "I remember quite well who was THAT boy who managed to finish 3 family-size Pizza Hut Supremes in 1 frigging SITTING…"
"HEY! I was a growing KID~~~!!!" SD Lee snaps back, a black cloud on top of his head.
They all sat down to eat. Lao nodded, and the servers wheeled in the food for dinner. Takao was wide-eyed; he has never seen anything so wonderful in his entire life. Food as far as his eyes could see (on the long, rectangular table, anyway): sweet and sour pork, roast Peking duck, stir-fried vegtables with pork, stir-fried noodles with crispy vegetables, braised beef, beef in oyster sauce, crispy fried chicken, all sorts of beef, pork, and shrimp-filled dumplings, egg spring rolls, and huge bowls and huge bowls of fried rice, generously sprinkled with cubed carrots, cubed red bell peppers, green peas, and sliced scrambled egg, along with bits of sweet ham. Everything was washed down with sweet iced tea, and soon, dessert was served: black gelatin cubes dribbled over with sweet caramel syrup, and lots of sweet iced tea.
"Wow, that was very delicious, Mr. Kon," Takao says with a small satisfied smile on his face. "I don't think I'll EVER go to a Chinese restaurant AGAIN."
"Thank you," Lao told him with a big smile on his face. "Our dinner tonight's courtesy of my grandson Lei. He made everything possible."
Takao, Max, Kai, and Professor all looked at him in surprise. Lei had turned chibi-neko, his eyes little slits, and he was blushing.
"You NEVER did say you could COOK, Lei," Takao told him, awestruck.
"WOW," Max breathed, his blue eyes wide.
"A house-broken Tiger," Kai said in awe.
"And not a WORD." Professor shook his head.
Lao laughed. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~~~~!!! At the rate Lei's going, he's bound to get swamped by marriage proposals in the weeks that follow. I mean, they'd follow him EVERYWHERE once they also KNOW he could also COOK!"
"…" Lei glanced shyly over at Asaya, who was delicately nibbling on the black gelatin cube she had speared on her fork. He looks quickly away, feeling himself blush even more furiously.
"?" Lee blinked.
Tsukiyo caught this little exchange as well, and had a huge question mark on top of her head. Only Max had a big grin on his face, and Kai was predicting he'd tease Lei about it as soon as dessert was finished.
Chairman Daitenji, Lao, and Lee all stood up after dessert was finished. "Well then, children, we would be going off to the study for a few minutes. Llewelyn, could you come with us, please?" Chairman Daitenji said.
"?" Llewelyn slowly nodded. "Uh…certainly, Mr. Daitenji."
The 4 of them left the dining room, and Lei all ushered them into the wide gardens near the dining room. It now looked like some sort of Faerie wonderland, with all the spherical paper lanterns strung through the trees and giving off a soft, warm glow, bathing everything in its ethereal light.
Max pounced on Lei right away before he could even react. "HEY! I saw you giving Asaya Ninomiya a LOOK when your grandfather mentioned something about WEDDING PROPOSALS," he said slyly, grinning.
"…h-huh?!" Lei blinked. "What are you talking ABOUT?"
"Ooh, what was that?" Max's eyes sparkled. "Someday my princess would COME! Wait a minute, she's just sitting right in front of ME!"
"It's not what you think," Lei told him. He was fervently hoping the light was dim enough as for Max not to see him blush. "I…I…"
"You love Mao?" Kai said without looking up from adjusting his watch.
"…" Lei became instantly quiet.
"Oh dear, you have a BIG problem." Max pretended to be horrified. "She HATES you now, Lei. Why didn't you tell her SOONER?"
"I was too…scared…" Lei shook his head. "But…"
"Are you having a problem because you're being traitorous about your feelings for Mao?" Takao asked suddenly.
"I…"
"Lei. In the first place, you didn't promise her ANYTHING. You just said you'd ONLY be back, right, you DIDN'T say you'd be back soon to MARRY her. Well, unless of course, you've been writing her letters and you told her that…"
"…"
"If that should be the case, it's an entirely different THING." SD Takao nodded. "You didn't ask for that to happen. Shao just didn't have anything else better to do that was why he DID that. And nobody's blaming you for what you did, Lei, you did that for the good of the entire White Tiger Clan."
"But if I didn't…" Lei clenched his fists. "If I didn't leave, then none of that would have happened…Mao would then be…my wife."
"Lei…"
"She said it was my fault why…why she became like that…" Lei bowed his head. "It was my fault the entire village was decimated…"
"If you DIDN'T leave, then you would've been killed too, with the rest of THEM," Takao told him. "Lei. I know how you feel, but, we really can't dwell on the past now that everything has already happened. It wasn't YOUR fault. It was something deeper than all that…a conflict between the White Tiger and Black Tiger Clans. If Mao did care for you, she wouldn't have blamed you for what you did, because she, of all people, should KNOW you, and because…she LOVES you. But now…look what she did, she betrayed the White Tiger Clan she was supposed to have protected with her very life, until she breathes her very last. You all promised, right, to protect the White Tiger Clan no matter what happened? It's clear she forgot all about that promise and she's now making you suffer. What was it that you had all those years? It's not like Mao to forget something so pure and so beautiful just like that. It's time for you to move on." He nodded. "You may wait, but then, things would never be the same again. It's forever LOST."
"…"
"I've seen how you look at Asaya. I'm not that incredibly dense as not to sense something very special at the way you look at her, how much she means to you even though you're still denying that feeling, because of what you feel for Mao. Heh, it's pretty hard getting over Mao, but you must not forget you also have your own happiness to think of. As far as I can tell, you're NOT betraying anybody for what you FEEL. If you're scared, she's just right around the corner, waiting for you. OK, Lei?"
SD Max and SD Professor were looking at Takao funny. SD Takao blinked, then became an angry ogre. "WHAT~~?!"
Kai raised one eyebrow. "God forbid, where have you taken the REAL Takao?! Call and exorcist, QUICK!" he deadpans.
"What the HELL are you talking ABOUT~~~?!" SD Takao was huffing and puffing like an angry SD ogre.
"…" Lei watched as his friends goof around, then turned to look over at SD Asaya, who was whispering something to Pierre, who had also become SD and was nodding very vigorously by the gazebo-like strucure. That pain went through him again, just like that night when Llewelyn leaned over and gave Asaya that kiss on Opening Ball last night.
He shakes his head.
***I can't…be feeling this way…but…Mao…?*** Lei looks at Asaya again, who burst out laughing when Giovanni threw a plastic spider towards Pierre's way, and he jumped off like an electrocuted cat. His amber yellow eyes became expressive. ***Am I falling in love with you…?***