Just a cultural note here. The boys are a bit surprised because Anika wears the least clothing at the top of her body, right? Like boob-tubes and stuff. To Western cultures this isn't that surprising, but when I was in Japan this teacher that showed us around asked us not to walk around without sleeves on or undoing the top couple of buttons on our shirts –like we would, it was too damn cold- because some of the boys would find in a turn-on. And after looking at other anime and stuff I guessed having a short skirt is more acceptable in Japan than it is here, so it's like… the other way around. I mean, I could be wrong about this, but that was the impression I got.
Chapter Three
Compulsory Shower Walk-In
'Why's Anika?' Tyson asked, looking around Max's room. 'She's not here.'
'No, Tyson, I'm sure Max is hiding her under the bed.' Kai said sarcastically as he appeared in the doorway.
'Kai! You came?'
'Like I said, I don't have anything better to do, and I need to see someone in that area anyway.'
'See someone-?' Tyson asked, and then groaned and rubbed his forehead. 'Forget it, never mind. Kai, you go see where Anika is. Maybe she got lost- Max needs to finish the repairs to that Beyblade and I'll wait for Kenny.'
Kai looked suspicious for a moment, but then shrugged.
Why am I doing this? He asked himself silently, looking at the doors he passed, watching the numbers. And that lady at the counter...
'Oh, I'm sorry, sir,' she had giggled, 'we can't call her room, she specifically said that anyone who called her would-' she frowned, and said something in English. Kai's lips moved, and he grinned. It reminded the woman of the one that had orange and black stripes and lived in the jungle.
'I see. I'll have to go up to her room, then. What's the number?'
'Oh, sir-' she began to protest. Kai fixed her with a smile. He hated himself for doing it, but it certainly got results. Oh, if only Tyson could have seen him act like that...hell, if anyone had seen him act like that, Kai would have gladly shot himself. He leaned his chin on his hand, resting his elbow on the counter.
'Hm?'
She blushed furiously. At that time, Kai would have gladly drunk arsenic. He felt like a traitor to himself.
'Er- room- room 24e, sir...'
'Thankyou.' Kai said in what he hoped was a sincere tone, flashed her another smile, and then walked into the elevator. Once there, he punched himself across the face.
'God, how humiliating.' He muttered. 'I hope I never have to do that again.'
Kai still felt like looking around for a handy loaded gun as he stopped at the right door, and knocked on the door.
'Anika? Hey, Anika, are you awake yet?'
He waited for the footsteps, and heard none. He was about to try the doorhandle when the door opened. Anika stared at him.
'Hey, it's you.' She managed, after they had stared at each other in horror for a minute.
How had she come up to the door without making any sound?
She'd thought she was hallucinating when Kai's voice had called. What the hell was he doing here?
Kai pulled himself together first, still a little unnerved.
'Tyson says you were supposed to be at Max's place fifteen minutes ago.'
Anika laughed nervously. Kai was trying not to notice the fact she was wearing only a short bathrobe and not much else, if he was any judge.
Whoa. Don't go there. Do. Not. Go. There. Kai. HELLO?! His inner voice screamed. Are you LISTENING?! No? Fine, but when she catches you staring at her butt like then there is going to be hell to pay- good lad.
Kai snapped himself out of his trance and shook his head violently, unused to being this out of control. Anika stepped aside, indicating he should come in.
'Yeah. I kind of woke up at eleven and had to have a shower- lucky you came, actually, I spend ages in there. What are you doing here?'
'Tyson seemed to think it was a good idea, and if I refused to come then you would have had him barging in- and if you're anything like me, well-'
'Mercy from you? I'm touched.' Anika said from the bathroom. 'There's a kettle on the counter, I'll be another couple of minutes.'
Kai nodded, and set himself about making a cup of coffee. After a moment he paused, sighed, took a guess, and made two.
He was getting really worried, and that in itself was a worry. Something about Anika was making him think about- well, stuff not involving so much as that damn bathrobe, for a start. That little incident and the thoughts that had flashed through his head when she'd opened that door, eyes puzzled, the thin silky fabric clinging to her slightly damp body-
ARGH!
He really needed to hit something. He banged his head against the table a few times, and found that it helped. After a while, though-
'What,' Anika asked, very carefully, 'are you doing that for?'
'I am wondering,' Kai said steadily, his forehead still in contact with the cheap wood, 'why the hell I let Tyson talk me into coming.'
'Because you have nothing better to do with your life.' Anika supplied helpfully, and glanced at the coffees, the question in her eyes. Kai pushed one towards her.
'Here. White with a little sugar, right?'
She stared at him, frozen as she reached for the cup.
Okay. How had he known THAT?! He own family couldn't remember that! How-why-AAAH!
The question was there, again, and Kai felt some strange compulsion to answer it once again.
'I guessed. It just seemed to be right, that's all.'
'Uh, thanks.' Anika said. Kai regarded her steadily as she walked across the room and rummaged through a drawer, looking for something. He had to have been being paranoid last night. Bad habit of his, thinking all of the people who asked him for autographs were out to get him...feeling horrible but not wanting to know why (which is not the same as not knowing) he looked around for the flyer he had signed. He found it carefully slid between a stuffed Hello Kitty toy and a Beyblade packet. Anika did not strike him as the kind of girl who desired a stuffed Hello Kitty or a plastic Beyblade, and so he relaxed. It was going to take some getting used to, knowing a girl who apparently didn't care about who he was to the rest of the world. He was aware that was probably a fault with him, thinking a lot of people were out to get him. The problem was he was rarely wrong about people.
He'd better start to re-assess Anika, this time less hastily and in daylight.
'Can you see my jacket lying around?' Anika scowled, standing up. 'I can't find it anywhere.'
'What does it look like?'
'It's the one I was wearing last night-' they both looked around for it, Kai putting down his coffee and looking under the desk. He stood up and for some reason looked back at his chair. He smirked, and slid his fingers over the back of the chair, picking the leather up off the back of the chair where it had been carelessly flung the night before.
'Oh, Anika-' he said sweetly, smirking and holding it up. Anika looked, and grimaced.
'Oh, I fell like an idiot.'
Kai grinned wolfishly at her and just as she reached out to take it, the door was flung open.
'ANIKA!' Tyson yelled, and stopped. 'Oh- Kai, have you been here all this time?' he asked, his eyes glinting. Kai knew what that look meant, and he had to restrain himself from pounding the boy into a bloody pulp.
'He has, but I wasn't ready, so he had to hang around.' Anika said quickly, before Kai could snarl out his reply.
'Not ready? It takes you over half an hour to get dressed?!' Kenny gaped, staring at the girl's worn black pants and blood-red top, which, he couldn't help notice, had no sleeves and, come to that, ended under her arms. Encountering girls who wore the short material up the other end of their bodies was a new one. Short skirts he could handle.
'No-o, I was in the shower.' Anika sighed, and then groaned as Tyson grinned at Kai.
'It was nothing like that, Tyson, don't get ahead of yourself.' Kai growled- telling, his inner voice reminded him, a small lie. Kai didn't want to think about it. Tyson opened his mouth. Kai opened his eyes, and the light glinted off them in a strange way. Tyson swallowed.
'Okay, let's go, will we?' he asked, dragging Max out after him. Anika swirled what was left of he coffee around in her mug as Kai calmly finished his.
'What did you scare him like that for?'
'It's a little hobby of mine. Come on.'
Time passes- a month, to be exact...
Kai was rapidly getting irritated. Not with his companions- he was used to them by now. The problem was with his own confusion. Girls did not affect him like this, normally. Hell, ever. They were not, in his experience, supposed to suddenly walk into your life and stay there because one of your friends thought she was hot, and suddenly be in nearly every waking thought in your head.
Kai's problem was he had no one to ask, except...well, he knew that Anika would listen to him. Right now she was listening sympathetically to Max go on about his girlfriend over the large chocolate sundae she had bought him.
He'd gone for about a week or so without seeing Anika, but then he'd run into Tyson again, and- well, there was Anika, teasing Kenny subtly about a girl she'd seen him avoiding looking at with a huge blush on his face. Her teasing wasn't the normal kind of, "ooh, you liiike her" teasing. It was the kind that involved dropping hints you knew something he didn't want you to know, treading the fine line between being convincing that you didn't know and screaming it in his face with silence.
Beside him, Anika sighed as Max fell silent and shoved a huge spoon of syrup into his mouth, eyes more shiny than dry eyes allowed. Kai hadn't even been listening, and privately wondered why Max even bothered with relationships. They seemed to get in the way of everything.
Mind you, Anika was getting in the way of most of his thought processes, and he didn't even see her everyday. That had bad connotations, that did.
Back to the original point, though, Kai was not comfortable with ever asking anyone for help. Normally because if he didn't have the answer, no one did. But Anika, as she said, had three older siblings and a younger sister who was just starting to come into a certain age area which made her as moody as hell, and a younger brother who was too cute for his own good.
Kai vaguely heard Anika quietly tell Max something. He knew right away it wouldn't be a straight answer. She said everyone should find the answer for themselves. She would only show them the way.
And there you had it. Kai was the expert at blading. She was the expert on emotions.
Which was strange, Kai said, frowning at his ice cream, since he had never heard her speak about her own relationships...
Oh yeah. She'd never been kissed...and Kai had a feeling she thought, underneath her sympathy and knowledge, emotions were stupid. She always covered up when she was really happy, he'd noticed.
'Anika...' he began, after Max had flung his arms around the girl and ran out. Kai noticed privately she had frozen up under the contact. That was another thing. Contact seemed to scare her. He couldn't blame her.
She turned around on her seat, and her hand idly turned the straw around in her thickshake, looking at him questioningly. Very little was ever said between them. They found they didn't really need to. Being around someone who didn't like to talk was, for each of them, relaxing after a day with Tyson.
Which, to Kai's utter disgust, was becoming more and more a regular occurrence.
'-what-' he began, and stopped. Damn. Couldn't say it. He felt Anika watching him for a moment longer, and then look away.
The lady behind the counter slid a glance at the two at her counter, quietly eating or drinking their desserts. The girl- she hadn't said much, but the blonde boy obviously valued her very much and what advice she had given. The lady herself was in middle age and was surprised to hear the words of an adult through the mouth of a child. The boy beside her- he looked a little older, perhaps, his silver and blue hair a little longer and more in control than the last time she had seen him on television. On this hot summer day, he just wore black combat pants and a blue shirt, the first few buttons undone. The lady had not missed the admiring glances he drew from the young women coming in and out of the store.
They looked cute together, she smiled. But she also knew that, from the way these two acted, denial of emotions like that had been a habit that was going to be hard to break.
She wondered what he had been going to ask her about. She could take a guess...
Anika wasn't sure how it had worked out, but suddenly she had spent the whole day with Kai, most of it alone with him. She had met up with Tyson and two other friends of his for lunch, before they had spotted Max just after they had finished eating, drowning his sorrows in the ice cream bar. Tyson had tactfully (for once, and after some persuasion by Kai, who had the most amazing timing) disappeared, allowing Anika to go in alone to talk to Max, with Kai coming in on unspoken agreement. Anika suspected his presence had a strangely calming effect on Max. Kai always seemed to know what to do, where to place his feet so he wouldn't have anyone knock him off. He didn't say much, but there was the certainty that if he was still there, there was a way to live through the situation.
Anika herself was grateful for that. Tokyo was bloody HUGE.
They hadn't said much to each other, each lost in their own thoughts. Anika liked being like this with Kai, just wandering aimlessly in silence...something was comforting about the fact she didn't have to say anything, and knew he wasn't going to say anything to her.
It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, Kai knew. That was a rare occurrence where he was concerned, unless the people were used to him. People always seemed to think there was a fuse burning somewhere.
'You want to go to the park?' he asked.
She nodded, a faint smile on her lips. The sun was going down over Tokyo. She wasn't complaining about spending the night with him either.
'What are they doing?' Tyson asked, trying to shove Max over so he could look through the telescope Kenny had set up on the roof of a building where he had fixed the janitor's vacuum cleaner, earning, apparently, eternal gratefulness.
That was, Max had remarked, very sad.
'They're just- sitting there. Well, Anika's sitting, looking at the water. Kai's lying down with his hands behind his head, as usual- they're not saying anything.'
Tyson steamed, and grabbed at his hair.
'ARGH!'
'Calm down, Tyson.' Kenny said, rolling his eyes. Nope. Kai was right. Tyson did not change much at all. 'They seem to get along fine as it is. Anika's what you might say a little nicer than Kai- she listens and talks so you'll shut up more. Kai just ignores you, so it takes you longer to shut up, but the fact remains neither of them like talking much. In each other's company it must be very relaxing to know you're not expected to make conversation.'
'...huh?' Tyson asked. Kenny sighed.
'Never mind.'
'Well I still say they're being difficult!'
'I say we just leave them alone, Tyson.' Max said, standing up and quickly folding up the telescope.
'Not you too!'
'Anika just saved my life, as far as I'm concerned.' Max said firmly, causing Tyson to remind himself to make a dentist appointment. 'I don't want her angry with me, and if there is anything, I think Anika would want us to stay out of it. She tells us nearly everyday we're bumbling idiots, anyway.'
'Oh, you mean she meant that?'
'...just shut up and forget it, Tyson.'
Kenny looked back at the pair in the park, and made a grave mistake;
'Hey, I think they're talking!'
'What?! Gimme that!'
'Anika-'
'Mm?'
'Just out of curiosity, why have you never been kissed? I'm just asking.'
Anika lifted her head off her knees and looked around at Kai in surprise. Where had this come from? He was watching her with his cheek resting on one hand, having rolled onto his side in the grass.
He really was gorgeous.
ARGH! Not again! She quickly turned her head away.
'Well, for one thing- I've never had a boyfriend.'
'You must be joking.' Kai said flatly. Anika couldn't help it. Just the way he said it, in those flat, sexy, I-so-do-not-believe-you tones- it was just hilarious.
Kai waited until she had finished laughing, trying not to smile. Hell, he was not used to this. This was totally out of character for him.
'No, I'm not.'
'I still say you're kidding- no one's ever asked you out?'
'Not that.' Anika said, shaking her head as he sat up, propping one knee up and tucking his other foot underneath, loosely resting his arm on his knee as he watched her. She pretended not to notice.
'What then?'
'I just...' Anika hesitated, not really wanting to reveal one of her worst fears to someone she...well...Kai was...she didn't know.
'You don't have to say if you don't want to.' Kai said, his voice almost gentle. Anika suddenly looked up, too quickly for him to pull his eyes away before her gaze caught his.
She looked right through him. Kai felt like someone had just winded him with a baseball bat.
'Don't have to, anyway.' She said, and looked away again. Kai started breathing again. God, what was that-?! What had that been? How could anyone just fix him to the spot like that?
'Why not?'
'You feel the same way I do.' She murmured. Kai stared at her, his heart racing. Shit, now her was scared. He'd never felt more exposed in his life. Beyblading with the best was nothing compared to this.
And now she had done it. She just had to open her big mouth and let that slip, didn't she... Anika stood up, pulling her wallet out of her jacket.
'I'll go get dinner-' she muttered, hurrying off. Kai said and did nothing before she disappeared.
For the first time in his life, Kai suddenly felt sick. He was going to get angry, very angry soon if he didn't figure out a way to deal with this.
Immediately his mind came up with a solution.
He didn't like it.
But it would, the cold, battling part of him said, lifting up the concrete slab his mind had jammed it under for the last month, it would work.
When Anika came back, he wasn't there.
She wasn't surprised.
