A/N: Oi, this was such a yummy challenge... though I wish I took it a bit farther... Thanks to everyone who reviewed *rubs at tears* 'Thank you list' at the bottom.
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Teach Me, Kai
"Hey, Maxie, look what I can do!"
Takao's bubbly voice rang throughout the fenced area of the private pool, directly followed by a giggle and a loud SPLASH!
Rei glanced up from the book on his lap, irritated at the hundreds of little splatters of water on what once was perfectly clean – and new – paper. The black ink was beginning to smudge, the beautifully printed words of Keats' Ode to Melancholy (1) smearing across the page. He glared from above his shades at Takao, whose wild-haired head was bobbing up and down at the surface of the water, and closed the book for protection against the onslaught of more water.
"Nice job, Takao," Max called laughingly, wiping off the droplets from where they landed on his face and bare chest. "Next time try not to get me soaking."
"Will do, Maxie. Wanna help me practice?"The playful boy suggested, wiggling his eyebrows at his blonde friend, though the action seemed more comical than evocative.
Despite the fact that his book was soaking and nearly ruined, Rei laughed lightly at the indignant look on Max's face. With a huff, the fair-haired one replied, "And risk of being drowned by you? Never!"
Takao guffawed loudly and attempted to splash some more water on his friend. "I'll have you still!"
Max giggled again, jumping up and behind the recliner he'd been lying on, using it to shield himself. "You won't be able to unless you can get me!"
"You'll never get away from me, Maximilian; I'll capture you no matter the cost!" The rambunctious one yelled across the expanse of the swimming pool.
Rei laid back in his own recliner, tilting his face to the sun, closing his eyes and sighing contentedly. It was late afternoon, the sun barely touching the horizon, leaving a vermilion hue over where it brushed. Despite it being early September, the day was warm, a teasing breeze playing with his hair. Lying back like this, the warm sun kissing his skin, Rei felt himself slowly begin to relax, the tenseness leaving his shoulders.
The company was staying in one of Mr. Dickinson's country estates, the rotund businessmen having invited them for a weekend getaway from the rest of the world and beyblading (much to Kai's chagrin). Kenny was somewhere inside, complaining about the heat from the sun disrupting with Dizzi's 'external sensors output'. Kai had disappeared somewhere, too, as he usually did when there was no beyblading to be done. And the other two boys (Double Dumb and Triple Dim, Kai sometimes called them) were currently having a water fight in the secluded pool area.
Rei smiled softly at their antics, a warm feeling spreading over his insides. The two of them, together, reminded him of something so distinctly childish. Innocence, perhaps, or naïveté. Something he didn't have too much of; his life had mostly been spent on chasing knowledge and enlightenment, training and trying to achieve unattainable goals. He felt light inside when listening to they happiness. And, if he was truthful, he was a bit jealous, too; he wanted what they had, he wanted to feel the same warmth, the same bubbly happiness, and the same affectionate bond with another human being.
And while he thought this, the dying sun washed over him, the breeze lazily tugged at his hair and lulled him into a serene sleep.
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A tired sigh escaped Kai's lips as he moved through the dark interior of the house. Tiny beats of perspiration gathered at the back of his neck and on his brow, which the boy wiped off offhandedly. He walked up to the screen door separating the kitchen from the backyard, where a large, light illuminated pool dominated. He opened the door and stepped out, releasing another breath when the cool air touched his face.
The stoic boy looked at the water, crystalline and glowing because of the hundreds of small lights on the bottom of the pool. It swirled gently, playfully lapping at the tiled edges, beckoning him closer, to break its beauty with his form. Kai always loved to swim – maybe it had something to do with the calmness of water or the nature of its cold perfection – though he kept that fact mostly to himself. Swimming was something special to him, a getaway from the days' toils; a time when he could let go and just let himself float. It wasn't often that he had such open opportunity to succumb to this little piece of pleasure, so he took all he could when it was available to him.
The water continued to swish gently, the light dancing on its surface. A little self-consciously, Kai untied the belt that held his robe secure and let the cloth fall to his feet, tiny goose-pimples beginning to crawl on his skin. He kicked it to the side with one foot, feeling the water's temperature with the other. He was about to dive in when he heard a faint sigh behind him. Feeling threatened, Kai turned abruptly, his knees and arms bent in a defensive stance.
Kai didn't like to be interrupted when doing something as private and personal as swimming. 'Takao and Max probably sneaked in for a nightly rendezvous,' he thought with a dark glare in the general direction of the disruption. Another soft sigh and a disjointed murmur was heard. Stealthily, the bluenette crept closer to it, poised to pounce.
"Watta..."
A dark form was curled on the plastic recliner, a rope of long, black hair hanging off to the side, tail-like.
"...Rei..."
The name left Kai's mouth before he could stop it. Almost warily, he watched as the neko-jin's ears pricked and twitched, one golden crusted eyes opening lazily.
"G'mornin', Kai. What are you doing here?" He asked yawning, fighting an urge to curl up again and brushing at his hair self-consciously.
"It's nearly midnight, and what are you doing here?" The other glared at his icily.
Rei sat up, wincing slightly at the soreness in his side. 'Just great,' he thought with a cringe, 'those two simpletons let me fall asleep and forgot all about me. Fun-tastic, now I must have a huge sunburn on the right side of my face. Welcome tie-dye pussy cat.'
With a sheepish grin, he looked up to his leader and said intelligently, "Err... I fell asleep?"
Kai turned away from him and headed to the side of the pool, saying over his shoulder, "Then go on inside and finish your nap."
Rei watched, curious, as Kai stood facing the blue-tinted water, the sparkles playing on his face. For the first time he noticed that the captain was wearing only a pair of navy-coloured swim trunks. He blushed as his eyes travelled the expanse of the cold boy's lithe figure. Broad shoulders, graceful neck and legs, the view wasn't bad at all from the front, either — 'beautiful,' Rei thought.
He wasn't feeling sleepy any more. "Maybe I don't want to go inside, maybe I want to enjoy the sight – it's beautiful tonight," he said with just a hint of a haughty smirk in his voice.
"Suit yourself," replied the other.
Maybe it was the familiarity of Rei's presence so close to his own, or maybe he was feeling more open tonight, but Kai didn't care whether Rei was there to watch him enacting his ritual. In fact, Kai felt a warm, bubbly feeling slither into the pit of his stomach. He, for whatever reason his mind deigned suitable, wanted Rei to watch him.
Gracefully, he walked over to the slightly raised platform, feeling Rei's feline eyes follow his every move, stopping when he reached the end of the dais. The two-toned boy stole a furtive glance at his (not unwanted) companion, stretched his arms out and up and then, with another deep breath, jumped.
Rei watched, mesmerized, as Kai outstretched his arms, the muscles on his back taut and glistening with a thin layer of sweat (here Rei's, now persistent, blush deepened). For a moment, when the older boy leapt into the air, he looked like he was flying; though his wings were invisible. Then, to Rei's amazement, he twisted in mid-glide and plunged into the cool blue depths. The water opened up to him, swallowing him whole, welcoming him like that was where he truly belonged; there were no splashes. Rei thought this was a befitting the cold boy; after all, 'Kai' meant 'ocean', so naturally he was one with it.
Almost as if in a daze, Rei walked up to the side of the pool and plopped down. He watched as Kai resurfaced, his face sleek with water and wet hair.
"I didn't know you could do that," the Chinese boy said when the other swam close.
"You never asked so I never said anything," Kai replied with a shrug, exhilarated. He always enjoyed the feeling of water rushing against his body; it made him feel alive, free.
"You didn't even give me a hint, how was I to know?"
Another shrug and Kai kicked off the side of the pool, disappearing under the water. Rei longingly watched his form resurface and submerge. Kai looked so natural in the water, like he was a force of nature himself. His stokes were strong, his body cleaving the water like a knife. The Chinese boy wanted to join him, to be a part of that oneness with Kai; in a way, he envied the water and how it could freely touch the stoic boy's body.
After a while, Kai swam back to the ledge where he left his raven-haired friend. While he was swimming laps around the large pool, he felt Rei's eyes boring into him. Oddly enough, he didn't feel like his privacy was being invaded, but, rather, like he was placed on a pedestal for admiration. Even though the water was cool, he felt a warm flush spread over his skin.
"Care to join me?" He asked on impulse and immediately after the words left his mouth, he wanted to bash his head open on something hard. The lines were overly cliché, not to mention way out of his character.
"I - I can't," replied the neko-jin, averting his gaze to something other than the smouldering garnets in front of him.
"Why not?"
"...Because I don't know how to swim..." this was said timidly and quietly, almost like a whisper of the wind against ones' face and hair. Kai heard it anyway.
"I thought you liked water," the older boy fought down a smirk.
"Just because I like water doesn't mean that I have to like swimming in it," Rei huffed, tracing a droplet on the cold tiles with his finger.
"Why?"
Mortified, Rei lifted his gaze to meet the other's, only to drop it again. He let his foot graze the water's surface, his toes curling at the unexpected cold. He didn't like to admit that he had a weakness, but he also knew that in order to conquer that weakness, he also needed to face it. "Well... I..." he brought a hand to brush his hair out of his eyes, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Don't laugh...T-the water is cold and wet and it gets into your eyes and mouth... and I'm afraid I'll drown.. "
"That's it?" Kai raised an inquisitive brow, a smirk tugging at his lips.
The Chinese boy nodded, glaring at his reflection in the water. "I guess I never found the need to." He looked at the other through the reflection, fathoming his reaction. The bluenette didn't say anything.
"Teach me, Kai?" He asked, timidly nibbling on his bottom lip.
"Sudden change of heart, hm?"
Rei shrugged nonchalantly; it wouldn't do to tell Kai that the new interest in the sport was due entirely to him. He kicked the water with his foot, sending a small shower of droplets in Kai's general direction. "Now's as good a time to learn as any."
The bluenette's first instinct was to give the other an outright 'no'; he had no time for helping out, even a friend. But Rei was different, special, though Kai couldn't quite determine why. The neko-jin's eyes were deep and pleading, staring up at him. Maybe the icicle was melting, but Kai couldn't find it in himself to say no.
"Come then," he said, outstretching his arms to the younger boy, "let's get this lesson over with."
Rei smiled goofily and hastily removed his simple t-shirt and pants, being careful to remove the bell necklace as well, revealing black swimming trunks underneath. Shyly, averting his eyes from Kai's scrutiny, he moved to the stairs on the side of the pool. Gingerly, the neko-jin plunged a slim leg in the water, withdrawing it a moment later. He repeated this process until Kai's voice interrupted him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to get used to the water – it's cold," Rei replied, continuing on with the procedure.
"That's not how you do it," the two-toned boy said coolly, swimming up to his struggling friend with the ladder. Sneakily, his fingers curled around the other's foot. With a tiny smirk, he applied pressure on the back of the youth's calf. Rei, unbalanced from both the embarrassment and the touch on his lower leg, fell into the water with an audible "Ack!"
"Don't worry, I'll be here to catch you," was whispered into his ear.
The Chinese boy opened his eyes from when he shut them at the impact with the water and looked up into Kai's face, just inches above his own. The bluenette had his arms wrapped around the smaller teen; their bodies pressed flush against each other.
"W-why did you do that Kai?" Rei asked shakily, breathless from the rush and the feel of the other's skin; his head was cradled just in the juncture of Kai's neck and shoulder.
"It's easier to get used to the water that way, quicker, too. That way, the temperature distributes evenly over your body, instead of just one area," Kai answered, untangling himself from Rei.
Thinking back on it, Rei didn't feel as cold as he should have had; the feeling of another body pressed to his erased nearly all conscious thought. Kai was moving away from him, and, realizing this, Rei seized his hand, like a lifeline, before it could disappear out of his grasp.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?"
Don't leave me; I don't want to drown.
"You should learn how not to depend on other people."
I won't; I don't want you to drown either.
"I'll do that after I know how to keep myself afloat."
Good, stay by my side, then, and help me.
"Hold on to my hand," said Kai, twining his fingers between Rei's and beginning to swim at a leisurely pace. "Let your body go, pretend that you're weightless and let the water push you to the surface —"
"What if I'm too heavy?" Rei asked, anxious that Kai was moving so far ahead of him.
The bluenette almost smiled. "It doesn't work that way. The water forces your body to float to the surface because of the oxygen inside of you, regardless of your body mass. Besides which, you weigh less than Takao and he hasn't drowned yet."
Rei did as Kai instructed, laying on his back and relaxing the muscles in his legs and abdomen, and sure enough, the water supported his weight, though he had to put the rope of his hair on top of his chest. The Chinese teen smiled to himself, glad at his progress. It felt nice to feel the water moving against his body, oddly surreal, too. He closed his eyes, listening to the amplified sounds. They were disjointed, pulsing into his ears and reverberating through the rest of his body.
"Kick your legs."
Rei blinked, awoken from a half dream. "What?"
"Your legs, keep them straight and kick upward, use them to propel yourself," Kai called over his shoulder.
And so, Rei kicked at the surface of the water. Maybe it was his inexperience, or the because of sheer momentum, but he kicked too hard and the water at his feet rose up with a splash, frothing as he continued. The small droplets even made it as far as the back of Kai's head, which was a great deal ahead. Kai, exhilarated and feeling oddly playful (if you're were familiar with either him or his playfulness, you'd run as it often tended to be deadly), he kicked at the water with more force, assaulting his charge with a small rainfall. Rei, in turned, kicked even harder.
Things went tumbling down from then on. Rei sprayed Kai, who sprayed him and was sprayed in return. Before long, it turned into a water fight, with both boys kicking and shovelling water at each other. Though they still held hands. Rei laughed when Kai moved too slowly to evade his attack.
"Try as hard as you want, I'll come out victorious," the Chinese boy exclaimed laughingly. The comment reminded him of Takao and Maxie earlier that day, though he didn't dwell on that for too long.
"Really?" Kai raised an eyebrow at his friend. "I had a different idea."
Before Rei could realize what the bluenette was doing, Kai's entire body disappeared under the water. A tiny whimper of protest escaped the neko-jin's lips.
"Kai, don't hide from me!"
The other youth was nowhere to be found, only the crystal blue waters. Unwittingly, Rei tensed his muscles, beginning to thrash his arms and legs. Panicking, he realized that his lower half was no longer touching the surface of the water, so he kicked harder, hoping that the movement would give him some momentum. A strangled cry escaped his lips before he could stop it. And still, he could not see Kai anywhere.
"I'm not hiding: I'm hunting."
Rei whirled at the warm breath just below his ear. Kai was smirking haughtily at the neko-jin, his hands snaking to the curve of his waist. Rei glared at Kai, flinging hair and water out of his eyes, no longer feeling the need to kick in order to keep himself afloat. The Chinese boy flushed madly when he felt the other's fingers brush against the skin just above the waistline.
"You left me, you said you wouldn't," he said, narrowing his eyes with a pout.
"I didn't; I was right behind you. I told you I wasn't going to let you drown, and I don't go back on promises," Kai answered, swimming to the edges of the pool, his friend still clinging to him.
"Then why didn't you help me when I was sinking?" Rei asked, a bit less bitingly.
"I thought you looked comical," Kai replied with a shrug.
"Well that wasn't very funny," the other said, scooping up water and flinging it at his friend's face.
The expression on Kai's face – a crossbreed between startled, disgruntled and ready to kill, his hair matting his forehead and dripping occasionally – broke a barrier that was slowly building up in Rei's stomach since he woke up. Small quivers reverberated throughout his body, his shoulders shaking. Kai watched in amazement (and just a hint of worry) as Rei's face contorted into a smile and then a full-out laugh.
The neko-jin threw his head back and closed his eyes, letting laugher bubble in his throat and escape from his lips. Kai watched, perplexed, as moisture gathered at the corners of Rei's eyes. The younger boy's face was flushed, the rosy accent on his cheeks highlighted by the cold clue of the water and the electric lights. His eyes were glistening, dancing and dark. The raven hair was beginning to dry and the longer tendrils on the sides were curling slightly.
Kai growled and frowned, deeper than he ever had, and let go of his friend (he made a mental stress on "friend"). Rei stopped laughing, hurt, and watched as the older boy climbed the metal ladder and stepped onto the tiles. Stiffly, he bent to pick up his fallen robe and after donning it headed for the kitchen doorway.
"Where are you going, Kai?" Rei called out to him, feeling something pinch him from the inside.
"It's late and I have to get up early for practice," the bluenette called over his shoulder, not looking at his friend.
And so, the neko-jin was left alone in the large pool, clinging to the cold ladder and feeling his insides begin to be overcome with the same coolness.
Hours later, it seemed, Kai was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, which reflected the pool's blue glow. He growled deeply in his throat and punched his pillow.' What's wrong with me? What had I been thinking?' he berated himself. 'For a moment back there, when the water sparkled in his hair and face, the droplets playing on the tip of his elfin nose and on his lips – I thought he was really beautiful. And for a moment, I thought I was really going to kiss him.'
(tsuzuku...)
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(1) I love this poem; in fact, I very much like the poet, too. It's so sad that he died so young.... *sniff*
That *twitch*twitch* turned out to be shorter than I expected..
christie: Aa... hehe... no I haven't mentioned Kai being an emotionless bastard in the previous chapters, it's the fight the two of them had before that *particular* chapter/ story... I'll touch a bit on that later, given that there is an appropriate challenge. Thankie for the review ^^
SeaGull: No problem at all! I've made the changes to the quotes, as you've suggested. Thank you very much; I know how translators tend to make such delicate phrases sound too formal. French is a very beautiful, flowing language. You live in la Marseillaise? Ooo, I wanna go there one of these days... Thanks for your review and I'll try to make this into a complete fic.
Elbereth Gilthoniel: Ano... I know that some of the stories lack originality, but I seriously can't help it. At the ML, we're given like four days to write a fic on a particular topic, so I oftentimes don't have much room for compromise. Aa... this fic will – and does – concentrate on the emotional ties of Kai and Rei, but I'm tying in romance into that, too, so that factor will pop up.
Radical Aisha: Thankies *hugs* I'll try to update as soon as possible, but that depends on the ML.
Soul Sister: Aa, that they are. That's why I love this pairing so much^^ They have so much chemistry together.
Chibi Kitty: Hope that satisfied you for now; I'll write more once a new challenge is out. Thankie, here have a cookie *hands cookie*
AA-chan: Oof, thank you! Ano... the chapters go by random order (they're actually separate fics that I tied into one, but lets not mention that, shall we?) Though they do have some sense of time passing. Like it started out with June then moved over to July and August and now's going through September. It's seasonal.
Wolfy girl: Thankies *blush* I promise to write more when the ML give out more challenges. Really really.
Cyndaquil Babe: Ano... I don't really know how many chapters there'll be, in fact I have absolutely no idea where this fic is heading ^^;; I'm making it up as I go, so hopefully I'm not digging myself a grave with this.
DranzerGirl: *blinkblink* You wasted ink on *that*?! Oi, thank you very much *gets teary-eyed* I'm very honoured.
Shameless Plug (sort of): not to seem over confidant or anything, but I'm going to write another KaixRei fic soon. It's going to be schoolfic, and AU (and will focus quite a bit on art). If you have any suggestions, just things you'd like to read about, I'd always be glad to feature some, though I can't guarantee much...
