A/N: Ano... sorry I haven't updated this story in a while, but the ML has been going through a rough time lately and no fic challenges were posted until recently. This challenge is based on Shakespeare's "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..."
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Wild Rose
The door opened and closed with a soft "click," allowing a sliver of light to escape into the room before it disappeared again.
Rei looked up from a careful inspection of Drigger in his hands and into Kai's stony face. The Chinese boy was sitting in his darkened room, which he shared (like always) with his taciturn captain, oddly silent, pensively studying his blade. Kai walked in, his strides long and purposeful, no hint that he spent the entire day in relentless and strenuous training. Neither said a word, the former lost in pensive thought, and the latter too unaccustomed to speaking out.
The blue-haired young man, shoulders and back tense, glanced scrutinizingly at the foreign object in the room.
"What's this?" He asked coolly, tilting his head to indicate the item.
"That?" Rei asked, lifting his head for a second before attending to his beyblading once again. "Oh... it's a present."
"...For?"
"Yours truly," the dark-haired boy answered with a hint of a smile in his voice.
Kai lifted up the pink tag that was attached to the bouquet of roses in the crystalline vase. Love you always, Rei ~ Akari. The little note read in purple ink. 'Akari?' Kai thought with surprising disgust, spitting out the name mentally. 'Who does this girl think she is? Openly adoring Rei is one thing, but sending him roses is a different matter entirely. Rei has no time for romance, he should know that.'
Kai knew perfectly well that the other boy was a popular amongst the girls. It was a well-known fact that out of the four Blade Breakers, Rei was the one who fangirls stalked after performances, threw themselves at while he was walking inconspicuously along the streets, and generally worshipped in every way possible. More than once Kai wondered why the Chinese youth was so appealing, though he had to admit, even if to himself, that Rei did have that certain something that drew people toward him. He remembered a few instances when he would look at Rei, and see the boy with his hair blowing rhythmically along the wind, eyes bright and dancing and a serene smile stretched upon those lips; he looked divinely beautiful. In those cases, Kai found it difficult to think, to breathe; his heart would still in his chest or pick up speed and he didn't know why and he hated himself for it.
The bluenette also knew that such gifts -- flowers, chocolates, love confessions and sometimes a lingerie item – were not uncommon for his raven-haired friend. Usually, though, the neko-jin hid those before any other of the Breakers could find them. Kai supposed that Rei was a little shy about all the attention he received, or maybe he was trying to be humble in front of his teammates. Perhaps he was ashamed that he was the most loved on their team.
"Why did you accept it?" Kai asked, scowling. He, for reasons he was unable to discern, didn't like crazed girls – or anyone for that matter – sending such intimate gifts to Rei.
"I guess I thought they were too beautiful to be thrown away," he answered with a sigh. "And I couldn't exactly say 'no' to her – she put all her heart into those flowers."
Gingerly, Rei reached out a hand to pick up a lush rose. Holding it up by the stem, he inhaled; the bloom smelled of honey and an odd variety of floral accents. It reminded him of many things, of times gone by and feelings he would rather ignore and forget.
"Kai?" He asked softly, barely above a whisper.
"Hn?" The other boy ground out, grunt-like.
"Do you.." Rei hesitated, biting on his lip. "Do you suppose you made the right decision?"
The cold-hearted blader turned from his contemplation of the sky outside the window. "What do you mean?"
Rei visibly fidgeted in his seat on the bed. "Have you ever wondered if you made the right choice... when you became a pro beyblader?"
"I've never seen the need to wonder; there was nothing for me to think about. I've always wanted to excel in blading, to become the best at it. And I will," Kai answered into the dimness of the room, his voice frigidly cold.
"B-but, haven't you ever thought of how your life would have been like if you haven't chosen this path? Don't you ever regret some of the things you've done?" The Chinese boy asked.
"No; I have no regrets. I do not regret becoming what I am today, I do not regret joining this team – despite Takao's pestering – and I do not regret doing the things I've done," 'or the friendship you helped to establish,' Kai opined, though those words did not leave his mouth. "As for the other: beyblading is my life, I have nothing else."
Rei sighed quietly, feeling his insides plummet. What had he expected? That Kai would nicely answer all of his inquiries like a good little boy and end the stream of plaguing questions running through his head? He snorted. As if. Kai would rather die a thousand and one deaths before turning over to the good side. Still, Rei was stung by Kai's biting responses, wounded deeply without understanding why.
The truth was, Rei was fearing that maybe he was wrong for ever getting into Beyblading, after all it was just a game, and one day he would grow up and out of playing such games. And what would he do then? He didn't go to school and practically everything he knew was from independent studies that he'd done. The Chinese youth was afraid that in the end of the Beyblade craze, there would be nothing left for him. No home to come back to since he left the White Tigers, no purpose in life. He even feared that he would lose his friends, after all, he doubted they had much in common outside of Beyblading.
"Well," he began anew, "suppose that there was no more BBA – no Beyblading entirely – what would happen to you then? Haven't you thought of where you would go, how you'd live without Mr. Dickinson's support? What about friendship and... love?"
"Love?" Kai spat out, almost growling. "Is this what this is all about? That- that bunch of flowers the girl sent you?"
Rei's eyes widened, his brows knitting together. "No! No. I'm not —"
"Love is nothing," the bluenette ground out, and suddenly he was standing next to Rei, pulling him up with a tight grip on the small boy's forearms. "Love does not exist. It's a myth, a fairy tale. A story made up by bored wives and girls with bows too big to fit on their puny heads."
Rei clenched his teeth together as if stung, and tightened his fists. He breathed in sharply, feeling a painful prickle in the palm of his hand. Looking briefly down, he noted the trickles of blood, like red ribbons, glide along his pale skin. The long stemmed rose, the same colour as his life fluid, was still in grasped in his hand.
The Chinese boy struggled against the strong hands that held him in place, feebly fighting down a wince. Rei paused abruptly, stilling. He could feel the warmth emanating from Kai's body through the scant inches between them, the air almost palpable. He could smell hard work and sweat and something so decidedly masculine on the captain. It was like an alluring, intoxicating spell washing over him and without him realizing, Rei's pupils enlarged enough to fill his golden eyes and his breath came out at a ragged pitch.
Fuelled by something more than mere anger, Rei balled his fists tighter, ignoring the sting of the thorns buried inside his tender skin. "There is nothing wrong with caring, Kai," he growled out, his golden eyes dark and menacing, and absolutely captivating (though Kai would swallow his own tongue before admitting that). "No matter how hard you try to run from it, no matter how hard you try to ignore it, the truth is that love does exist and it is real."
Scowling and his grip tightening on Rei's forearms, Kai replied scathingly, "Even if it is real, as you say, it still has no room in my life. I don't want to love; I don't ever want to come close to experiencing it."
"Why not?" Rei asked, not liking the desperate tone in his voice. "Love is the most powerful emotion on this planet. Kings died for it, and knights gave their lives to protect it. It's wonderful and it encompasses everything you can possibly fathom. No one is immune to it; no one can escape it. It is wonderful and beautiful. Oh, Kai! Do you know what it feels like to be in love?" The neko-jin questioned, barely containing the sob lodged in his throat. "It's glorious and painful at the same time, inviting and repelling. It's like a forbidden taste of Eden. It hurts so much, but you can't help yourself, and you just want to be with that person, even if not in the way you want to. And every glance you receive, every touch and word is special because it came form them. God, it hurts so much..."
Kai blinked at the smaller boy, feeling his chest tighten. The earnest look in Rei's big, golden eyes, the almost imperceptible whimper escaping his lips. For a moment back there, Kai would have sworn that Rei was talking about himself, prophetically and imploringly. The message was hidden from him, and he was afraid to seek out the answer. At the same time, the pain barely concealed in those orbs also made the blue-haired boy's stomach muscles clench and twist.
"Still, love is useless to me, meaningless and unnecessary. I want nothing to do with it," He replied icily. "And I also don't want anyone's worry or care or adoration. I am solitary, independent; I need nothing and no one."
"Bullshit, Kai. You know as well as I do that you can't last like that for a long time —"
"I will – I have to."
Before Rei could open his mouth to reply, Kai was moving toward the door. The bluenette stole a furtive glance at his friend from underneath his bangs. Then, with an ominous "click," the door closed again and Rei was plunged into the dead silence of the room, leaving him wondering at the abrupt closure in their conversation.
The irony almost made him cry, and as it was, he had to bite down on the lump in his throat. Kai was like the rose still clutched in his hand, despite the slowly drying blood and the now barely existent sting. He was beautiful, wild and natural and free. His heart beat steadily inside his chest, red and soft and warm like the silky petals of the flower. But to get to that heart, one had to get through the deadly thorns and frigid barriers. And then, once inside, if you survived the trip there with your heart remaining, you'd have to face with the fact that the soul inside is too beautiful for you to tame.
But then, even if Kai had grown up in different circumstances, had made different decisions, would he really be any different from what he was today? Would Rei still feel that same bond with him if he was different? He doubted it; after all, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, so Kai would, too.
Minutes, or maybe hours or days later, Rei couldn't tell, he left the dim room. Outside, Takao, Max and Kenny were sprawled on the couch, their eyeballs glued to the television set. Rei was about to go to the adjacent kitchenette when Max's soft voice interrupted him.
"Hey, Rei, what's wrong with your hand?"
The Chinese boy glanced at his hand, finally realizing that he still held the crimson rose and that blood tricked in rivulets along the crevices of his palm.
Smiling ruefully, he said, "It's nothing, Maxie. I've just pricked myself on a rose's thorn."
(tbc)
