Chapter Two:
Meeting the Rest
It really was Kai. From what she could remember, but he looked older. Which was to be expected, of course. He looked much sexier in person.
Eep! Okay, bad thoughts, bad thoughts, think soap! No, on second thought, don't. Baaad connotations.
For a moment Kai thought she was going to be another one of those raving fangirls, but then he realised that was the girl behind her. The girl he was looking at had no expression on her face; whatever thoughts were flying underneath it remained a secret. He had to admire that.
'I've been looking for you.' She shrugged, and reached into her pocket, pulling out his note. 'This is yours, isn't it?'
Kai nodded, stepping forward and taking it briskly.
'Thankyou.'
'No worries, mate.' She said, touching the brim of her cap, Kai paused- he wasn't sure why. Pausing wasn't really something he did at all often. Like never.
'Where're you from?'
'Australia. Why?'
Her eyes were laughing at him, he thought suspiciously. Her face was blank, much like his, most of the time, but her eyes seemed to be snickering.
'Just wondering.' He shrugged. She sighed. 'What?'
'You're going to hate me for asking you this-' she began, and looked up at the sky. Kai groaned inside. Oh, yay.
'Do you have a pen, then?' he muttered, holding out his hand.
'Sorry. It's for my little brother.' She muttered, clearly humiliated. Well, that was okay. Kai found letting people humiliate themselves was sometimes more effective than him doing it. For some reason he found himself saying,
'I don't have any siblings.'
'Lucky you.' She said miserably. 'Wanna trade?'
'No, not really. Here.' He handed her back the beyblading flyer she'd pulled out of her pocket.
'Thanks.'
Kai shrugged, and they turned their backs on each other to go.
'YO! KAAAAI!'
'Oh God.' Kai groaned, slapping his forehead. 'Not him. I can't take this.'
For some reason, she turned around again as some hyperactive guy her age barrelled through the crowd, two other guys his age behind him, embarrassed and making excuses for their friend's unruly behaviour. Normally she didn't stick around for this kind of thing, but she had a feeling seeing Kai getting- well, glomped by the late-teenager version of Tyson struck her as an once-in-a-lifetime event.
'You're back, buddy! Long time no see!'
'Tyson, we live in the same city.'
'Yeh, well, you know how it is.' Tyson said, flapping his hand in a bored fashion. 'So how's college, man?'
'I don't recall having to tell you anything.' Kai said coldly, and then blinked as Max and Kenny finally reached them.
'Kai! We haven't seen you in ages! Let's go catch up over dinner, okay? Hey, who's the babe?' Max asked, before he blushed furiously as Kenny clapped a hand over his mouth, embarrassed once more.
She looked over her shoulder.
'Who?' she asked, genuinely confused before she realised they were all looking at her. '...oh. Uh-'
'I don't know.' Kai shrugged. 'I just bumped into her.'
'Su-ure.' Tyson said, narrowing his eyes conspiratorially. Kai noticed with great and rapidly rising irritation that the guy had not grown up at all much in maturity, but in terms of physical height he was as tall as he was. Possibly taller.
How humiliating.
Tyson did, fortunately, seem to sense he was skating on thin ice so thin it was see though, and stopping playfully nudging the older boy in the ribs with his elbow. He grinned at the girl, holding out his hand.
'Well, I saw you get more than two words out of Kai, and that's good enough for me! You're pretty cute, you wanna join us for dinner?'
She opened her mouth to refuse, but stopped suddenly, for some reason catching Kai's gaze. And then found the black-haired boy behind her, pinning her arms behind her back.
'Hey-' she began.
'We won't take no for an answer!' Kenny sang, as he and Max frog-marched Kai forward. The older boy seemed to be resigned to his fate.
'You put up with this all the time?'
'Not anymore. But the college won't let me hang around all summer because they're rebuilding.'
'Bummer.'
'My thoughts exactly.' Kai growled.
She had to stop a smile. But no one noticed.
'Hey, you're pretty good at Japanese- have you been here before?' Tyson asked, watching their new female friend eat for a moment. She was certainly more refined in her manner than he was.
But then again, as Kai nastily remarked when he had mentioned it earlier, a lot of people were. Most, in fact.
'No, but my grandfather is Japanese and he lives with us a lot. My dad is away a lot, too, so I talk to Grandpa a lot. Everyone in my family is pretty good at the language, even my mother, despite the fact she claims she'd horrible.' She rolled her eyes a little and laughed.
'Wow, that's the most you've said all night.' Max blinked. 'You related to Kai?'
'I don't think so. I suppose my grandmother could have had an affair or something, but I doubt it.'
The three boys her age laughed, and Kai had to suppress another sigh. In reality though, he wasn't paying that much attention. His thoughts were centred on the redhead sitting next to him. She didn't say much, but when she did her tone was dark and almost sultry, laced with whatever emotion, he suspected, she felt like showing. He was trying to figure her out, but was discovering it was harder than he had originally thought; much, much harder than anyone else he knew. He was also fairly sure than she knew what he was trying to do, and was deliberately letting him know what she said wasn't necessarily what she meant.
She was teasing him, in a sadistic kind of way, and he didn't like it.
What was disturbing about this situation was that he was getting increasingly curious instead of angry, though he was that too. He wondered suspiciously if she knew exactly what was going on inside his head right now. Then he put down his chopsticks.
'What's your name?' he asked. The argument between Max and Tyson over the last sushi stopped abruptly, and they all looked at him. Last to do that was the girl, he noticed.
'What?' Tyson gaped, letting go of Max's collar.
'You heard me. She'd been with us for two hours but she's gotten away without mentioning her name. What is it?'
Oh, bugger. Still he'd have probably asked that anyway. He really was good. She wondered briefly if he thought that she was teasing him all this time, and decided he did, meeting that fierce mahogany gaze of his.
I wonder how I give people that impression...
'Sorry,' she grinned. 'My name's Anika Takasuki.'
'That's pretty.' Kenny said, poking his index fingers together. Anika ignored his obvious embarrassment at complimenting her, groaning inwardly. Kai rolled his eyes and pulled his wallet out.
'If Tyson's finished stuffing his face, I'll pay the bill so we can get out of here, all right?'
'Huh?'
'What?'
'Are you serious, Kai?'
Anika said nothing and showed nothing, instead inclined her head to the side slightly and letting a small smile flicker across his lips, causing Kai to twinge inside with discomfort. Shit.
'Look I just want to go home.' He said wearily, standing up. 'And the sooner we can get out of here, there better, and the quick way does not involve fighting over who the change belongs to. Anika, get them outside, please.'
'Yessir.' Anika agreed, nodding, and smiled dazzlingly at them. She hated doing this, she thought, as the stunned boys went to put their shoes on. At least no one could tell just how easily she was embarrassed.
Except possibly Kai. Something about that scared her, and now she really did want to go back.
'Anika, Kai? You're awfully quiet back there.' Tyson grinned, stopping and turning around to grin at them. 'You haven't been making out behind our backs, have you?'
Kai slammed a fist down on Tyson's head as he walked past.
'No.' Anika said icily, unceremoniously stepping on the boy as she followed Kai. Kai suppressed a smirk. 'For your information, I've never been kissed.'
'Huh?'
'You're kidding!'
'No way! Why not?' Max gaped, looking honestly shocked. Kai was a little surprised himself, even if he didn't show it. Anika Takasuki was...well...beautiful. He took a deep breath and let it out, hoping it expelled that thought as a part of him squirmed with uncomfortableness and another part rolled about on the floor, laughing hysterically.
But the fact remained, as Tyson screamed out aloud to the whole street, Anika was very kissable and how old was she?!
'Seventeen.' Anika growled. 'Tyson, shut your mouth, I think all of Tokyo heard you!'
Seventeen? So she was as old as Tyson. That made her three years younger than he was.
'No, I'm in the year below you.' Anika said, grinning. 'If I went to a Japanese school, anyway.'
'What year are you in Australia, then?'
'I finished school at the end of last year. Start of November, I think.' Anika said calmly. They stared at her. Kai nodded.
'You're from Western Australia, then. The education system there is weird.'
'You said it, but it gets me out of school a year early, why should I care?' Anika laughed, winking at him.
She really was laughing...maybe he had been being paranoid before. Damn, how come he couldn't make up his mind?!
'Let's go. The train station is this way.' He muttered, turning on his heel abruptly. Anika shrugged and followed.
'Come on, guys.' She said over her shoulder. 'I'm tired.'
'What just made Kai flip out like that? He was back to being Major Ass in a second.' Tyson demanded.
'What, you're asking us to figure out Kai?' Max gaped. Tyson thought about this for a second.
'Good point...'
'Tyson!' snapped Anika.
'Coming! Geez, you're just like Kai, Anika-'
'Thankyou.'
'Hey, Anika, you wanna hang out with us some?' Tyson asked. Anika froze at the doorway and turned around, looking surprised. Kai made a mental note.
'What?'
'I said, you wanna hang out with us some more? I mean, you're like a female, more friendly version of Kai, so you're pretty cool. We can show you around some⦠you're here all summer break, right?'
'Y-Yeah...'
'Great! Max lives just around the corner from here at the hobby shop, if you meet him there tomorrow and eleven we'll show you around, okay? What's your room number, in case we need to call?'
Caught up in the flurry of motion and energy that was Tyson, Anika found herself handing over her room number and taking the instructions to Max's place, and Tyson's, and Kenny's....Tyson paused.
'Hey Kai, what's your address? Kai?'
'He left ten minutes ago.' Anika said, and was amazed at how much effort it had taken her to keep from sounding a little disappointed. That guy seemed to be the only sane one...not that these guys weren't likeable, it was just that they seemed so much like...like...Anika, for the first time, found herself lost for words to describe the three boys racking their memories for their leader's address, or at least his phone number. Eventually she had to settle lamely, and rather humiliatingly, for, "not Kai".
She would wonder about that later. When she actually wanted to think about something like that. But right now it was way too late -or early, it was once in the morning- to think about the implications that might have.
Dammit, she did not want to get a crush on someone!
'Hey Anika, something wrong? You look tired all of a sudden.'
'Oh, I just had a long day, that's all.' Anika shrugged, smiling, then realised what it was. Tyson, Max and Kenny were practically Japanese versions of her brothers, ignoring the fact they were all the same age.
Now that, she decided, was very scary. All of a sudden she felt great pity for the people of Tokyo.
'I can't believe Kai just walked off like that without saying anything!' Tyson steamed, paying for his ticket and slamming it through the admission machine, storming through the gates and waiting for his friends.
'Actually, I'm kind of worried.' Kenny said, 'Kai bought dinner for us and let himself be dragged off- that's not like him. Do you think something's wrong? Maybe he's sick.'
Tyson groaned.
'No such luck, I don't think that guy's even had a sniffle his whole life. But I don't get it, Anika's like the only person I've ever seen him treat as if he doesn't completely hate her. Especially the first time they've met.'
'You do have a point. Maybe you should ask him.' Kenny said, and pointed. 'Don't forget, Tyson, Kai lives in the same direction as we do. We have to spend twenty minutes going the same way.'
Tyson turned around and glared at the young man leaning against a wall, his eyes shut, his arms folded, as always.
'He hasn't changed much at all...' he muttered, and stormed over. 'Yo, Kai, what's the big idea, storming off like that?!'
He tugged at Kai's leather jacket until the boy opened his eyes.
'I didn't storm off anywhere. I got fed up with waiting.'
'You didn't even say goodbye to Anika! By the way, we were thinking about taking her around to the park and that tomorrow, do you want to come?'
'I'll think about it.' Kai said, surprising himself. Normally he would run away from a chance to spend the whole damn day with Tyson like wild bulls were after him, but for some reason...he had to admit it, Anika had his curiosity aroused, and it was going to keep on nagging at him until he figured that girl out.
'Y-You serious?' Tyson gaped. 'Wow.'
'It's not like I have anything to do, Tyson.' Kai said, rolling his eyes and looking around down the tunnel. 'The train's coming.'
'How can you-' Tyson blinked, as a slow rumble reached his ears. A few seconds later, the train's doors slid open. Tyson's eyes narrowed at Kai, who calmly stepped into the doors and sat down.
'Show off.'
