Howdy all, here I am with another chapter, my longest yet (probably only until the next one) Still, it's an accomplishment. I had to put a bit of Kai/Tala stuff in somewhere, they're my second favourite couple. I'm sure you understand.

Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter too. I'll give you a hint to what's coming: there's another kawaii romantic moment in there.

Enjoy.

Letting Go

Rei walked slowly down the shadowed park path, the trees overhead letting only patches of golden light through to contrast with the dark silhouettes he stepped softly over. He came to the end of the path and smiled in delight as he caught sight of the sparkle of gold reflecting on the gentle blue surface of the lake.

Rei wandered slowly towards the small hill overlooking the twinkling waters. The gentle breeze caught in Rei's hair and pushed it slightly in front of his eyes, a few strands escaping his braid and drifting over his shoulders. His golden eyes looked contentedly over the beautiful scenery as he sat down atop the hill and stared out over the lake.

"You were right." Rei looked up behind him as someone approached. Lee smiled down at him. "It is beautiful."

"Did I worry you?"

"Yeah. You disappeared on us. I didn't know what happened." Lee sat down beside him.

Rei looked back out over the water. "I didn't want to miss this."

Lee nodded. "So how did you find this place?"

"Kai showed me. He'd been here before once with his grandfather on a trip when he was younger. Tyson and Max were with Kenny at the dishes and I got bored. I saw Kai walking off and I followed him. I think he realised I was there as we walked down the path but he didn't stop. He came down here and just stared out at the water for a while. I walked up to him and looked out curiously to see what he was so captivated by."

"What was it?" Lee asked.

"This." Rei pointed out at the lake. Lee turned his head and his breath caught. The sun was just beginning to set on the lake and was spreading red and gold rays all over the surface of the blue lake and caused everything they to have a glowing halo outlining it.

"Wow," Lee breathed. "It's beautiful." He looked over at Rei and his breath caught again. The raven-haired boy before him was more remarkable than the scenery before him could ever hope to be. His blissful features were bathed in a golden glow, his hair sun-streaked and shimmering in the gentle wind. He looked like a godling sitting there, his golden eyes shining with happiness.

"You've been staring at me all day."

Lee shook himself from the spell that had captured him. "You noticed that."

"It was hard not to."

"Kai was worried about something."

"Oh." Rei didn't look away from the view. "Kai often worries about pointless things."

"Sometimes he doesn't. Like this time. Something's wrong Rei."

"Really, I hadn't noticed."

Lee shook his head sadly. "You can't keep hiding everything from me. I'll find out eventually."

Rei shrugged. "You can't find anything if there's nothing to hide."

"Kai seems to think there's something wrong."

There was a miniscule flicker of something in Rei's eyes. "You seem to hold Kai in quite a high esteem. When did that happen?"

"As soon as I discovered how much you cared for him."

Rei spun his head around sharply, his eyes wide. "What? What do you mean by that?"

Lee smiled. "Exactly what I said."

Rei turned back away, guiltily. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was afraid, I didn't want you to get mad or upset or something."

"I'm not mad and I understand why you didn't say anything." Lee chuckled. "I actually had suspicions a long time ago."

"How long?"

"Since you left. That present you left for me seemed slightly inappropriate for the brotherly relationship we had." Lee grinned. "I saw that and it got me thinking. Gods, I was so blind to miss it. That morning I just sat there staring at the charm you gave me for hours. Then Kevin ran in to say you'd disappeared. You have no idea how much that hurt, to have you reveal your hart to me through a gift then leave. That more than anything was what made me so mad and upset. Everyone else thought it was because of Drigger and your 'betrayal', but you hurt me a lot deeper than that Rei."

Rei was staring at Lee in shock. The older boy he considered his brother had tears in his eyes, but he managed a smile. "I found you again, but I was still so angry with you that I never even considered anything but revenge on you. By the time my head cleared enough to be able to accept you back, I'd realised you'd moved on."

"Lee," Rei faced him with a stricken expression, but Lee held up a hand.

"I don't want anything from you now Rei, I just wanted to let you finally know what I'd felt all these years."

Rei felt tears flowing freely down his cheeks. "Lee, I'm so sorry, I didn't ever mean to hurt you, I was just scared and I thought you'd hate me. I looked up to you like a brother and I loved you like one. I realise that now and I'm sorry I can no longer say I return everything you feel."

"I know. But could I just have one memory of what we could have shared? I don't want to move on thinking you didn't mean as much to me as you do."

Rei smiled. "I would be honoured to be so cherished in your memory." He reached out to gently touch Lee's face and leaned in close, hesitating slightly before placing his warm lips on top of Lee's.

Lee reached up behind Rei's head and drew him down gently, deepening the soft kiss, all of his love conveyed through the tender touch of his lips to Rei's. Then he moved back, breaking the soft kiss of loving regret and gently trailed his fingers down Rei's cheek.

"Thank you Rei," he whispered softly. "Know that forever you will always have a place in my heart."

Rei smiled gently, tears still running down his cheeks. "As you do in mine. As you always have." Rei looked down and raised himself up onto his knees.

Lee caught sight of something and frowned. "What's this?" He asked curiously, gesturing to Rei's forearm.

Rei looked down and mentally swore. Damn, I didn't realise I'd been bleeding.

Rei looked back up at Lee, a bit sheepishly. "I was being a bit stupid this morning and didn't watch where I was going in the bathroom. I slipped on a wet patch and managed to catch myself on the vanity before I fell completely. But Kai's razor was on the edge and I scraped myself accidentally. It's no big deal. Kai cleaned it and bandaged it up for me."

Lee looked at him quizzically, unsure of how to take this. "And here I thought you'd grown out of your clumsiness." He grinned. "You're lucky you didn't almost kill yourself."

Rei smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah, I sure am lucky about that." Then he got up and offered to help Lee stand. "Come on, it's getting late, we should get back."

"You're right. Let's get the others and head back to your hotel." Lee and Rei started walking down the path again, not realising that a pair of furious, pink-lashed, golden eyes had witnessed their whole exchange.

* * *

"Kai? Kenny, Max, Tyson? You guys here?" Rei shrugged to Lee and the others. "I guess they're still out doing … whatever, do you guys want to come in?"

"We should probably get going, but we'll hand around for a bit." Lee entered the hotel sitting room with the others close behind. "Where could they have gone?"

"Not sure." Rei looked around for a note of some kind and spotted Kenny's laptop open on the coffee table. "Dizzy." He walked over and sat in front of the computer.

"Well finally," the huffy bit-beast snarled. "I've been left here since early this afternoon all alone with nothing to do but complete mathematical equations for that slave driver Kai!"

"Kai?" Rei looked surprised. "Why would he want you to do maths?"

"Because Kenny foolishly informed him that his analysis on Draciel only needed a few more finishing touches that he'd asked me to do. So after he'd chatted for a while he left me and told me to finish what I'd started, which I did. Three hours ago. Even a bit-beats like me needs to socialise a bit and sleep!"

Rei laughed at Dizzy's temperamental attitude. "Did he leave any messages with you?"

"Only the one that Mr. Dickinson sent. There's a dinner tonight at seven for the competitors in the Exhibition tournament. Everyone's to meet at the stadium."

"Seven? Lee cut in from behind Rei. "That's pretty soon."

"You guys go then and get ready. I'll wait here for everyone. They should be arriving back soon."

"Are you sure?" Lee looked a bit worried. "I could stay behind if you want."

Rei shook his head. "I'll be fine. Kai should be back soon, he wouldn't leave without knowing where everyone was and I'm sure that Tyson and the others will be back soon too."

Lee nodded. "So long as you're sure. We'll see you soon then."

"Bye Rei," Gary called out as he exited.

"Yeah, see you. It was great spending tie with you again today." Kevin grinned and waved.

Mariah walked up to Rei and embraced him. Not caring how he stiffened. "I'm glad we got to go out today," she said aloud. Her eyes narrowed and she leaned n closer to whisper, "Don't worry, tonight will be even better." Before Rei had a chance to push her away in disgust, Mariah let him go and winked before she left the room.

Lee watched her leave suspiciously. He saw the look of panic and disgust cross Rei's features as Mariah touched him, but he still wasn't sure why exactly Rei would feel like that about her. "Rei?" Rei looked up at Lee and tried to hide his panicked state but it didn't quite work. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

Rei shook his head. "I don't want you to be late." Rei smiled then impulsively embraced the older boy. "Thank you for today Lee."

"You're welcome." Lee returned the hug. "I'll see you soon then." He broke away with a soft smile and walked out of the room, leaving Rei alone in the hotel room.

Rei sighed and walked back over to Dizzy. "Did you want me to shut you down now?"

"Please," the bit-beast begged. "I'm in dire need of a recharge."

"Sure thing." Rei shut down the laptop, plugging it into a socket to recharge and grabbed a page from the notebook that Kenny always kept with Dizzy in case of any need. He wrote down the message about the dinner and that the calculations for Draciel were complete in case Kenny was wondering why Dizzy wasn't still on.

He looked down at his slightly blood stained bandage and sighed. "Guess I better go change this as well as my clothes."

* * *

Kai put his key in the lock and frowned when the door simply opened when he turned the handle. I thought I locked this. Kai opened the door completely and looked around to find no one there.

Well someone must have been here and forgot to lock the door. Kai walked over to the coffee table and noticed the not one top of Kenny's closed laptop. He smiled, recognising the handwriting. Rei. He looked over and noticed their door was ajar. He walked in quietly and saw no Rei. Where is he? Then Kai noticed a light on in the bathroom. "Rei?" he called out nervously.

There was no answer.

Kai freaked. "Rei?' He called out louder, walking quickly over to the bathroom door when there was again no answer. He opened the door to find Rei standing in front of the mirror unbraiding his hair and listening to music on his Discman, shirt off, fresh bandages on his shoulder, but his arms unbound. He whirled around when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and took off his headphones.

"Fuck! Don't do that to me, you scared the shit out of me," they both said at the same time.

Kai looked a bit flustered. "When you didn't answer, I thought …"

"Oh." Rei smiled. "I guess I haven't given you any reason not to worry yet have I?"

Kai shook his head. "Not really. How was today?"

"Better than expected." Rei sighed. "Mariah kept whining the whole time and I know she kept trying to get close to me." He shuddered. "Luckily, I either avoided her or Lee came along and interrupted her." Rei glared at Kai. "You told him to keep an eye on me."

"Why shouldn't I have?" Kai returned the frosty stare. "I needed someone I could trust to watch out for you today. I didn't want a repeat of last night. I didn't want anything worse."

"Kai, I'm not going to try and kill myself again."

"How do I know that?" Kai asked angrily. "Yesterday morning I could have said for sure that you would never do something like that. You were the stable one, the clam one, the reasonable one. You'd never do something as irresponsible and stupid as try and commit suicide. You have no idea what it felt like to see you there yesterday with blood all over you. My heart stopped and I felt like a helpless child again. Do you realise what you could have done to me? To the rest of the team? To everyone who loves you with that one single idiotic action? We could have lost you forever and I will not risk that again. Your life means, you mean too much to me, to everyone, to loose over something this petty." Kai now stood just before Rei, his face completely unguarded, tears in his eyes.

"Oh gods Kai." Rei threw himself on his captain and grabbed him in a tight embrace, burying his face into the crook of Kai's neck. "I'm so sorry," he sobbed. "I didn't think, I don't want to lose you either. I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Rei." Kai closed his eyes and grabbed onto the boy firmly. "Promise me you won't leave me? No matter what happens, be strong for me and come back to me, please."

Rei nodded. "I'll try to be strong for you Kai." He released the older boy and smiled. "I promise I'll always come back."

Kai gave him a brilliant smile. "Thank you." He then suddenly seemed to realise that he wasn't acting like his usual self and cleared his throat nervously. "So, tell me about today."

Rei nodded and returned to standing before the vanity and continuing to unbraid his hair. "I took the guys around town, showing them all the places I liked when you took us around. We stopped by that little café by the park for something to eat. I love that place. Then we checked out some of the amateurs for a while and Lee and I battled. Then the two of us ended up on the hill by the lake as the sun was setting."

Rei stopped there and frowned suddenly as he came across a large knot in his hair that he couldn't untangle. "Damn it," he muttered. Then he stilled as he felt gentle fingers replacing his and gently unwinding the tangle in his hair. Rei smiled in the mirror to Kai's reflection. "Thanks."

Kai shrugged it off and kept untangling Rei's hair. "Continue."

Rei nodded. "So the two of us watched the sunset on the hill. Lee was as impressed as I was by the display. Then we had a talk." Rei stopped again. Kai had finished untangling his hair, but he continued to run his fingers through it gently, brushing it out. Rei leaned back into the touch with a lethargic smile. Kai smirked at the feline display. Rei was a very sensual creature, he loved to be touched and stroked by those he felt comfortable with.

"What did you talk about? Something important?" Kai asked, not really caring whether Rei answered or not.

"Yeah, it was rather momentous." Rei smiled in remembrance. "Lee told me he loved me."

Kai's hands stilled as he heard this admission. Rei looked up at him curiously. "I … I had no idea," Kai told him with a slight frown.

"Neither did I. I was in love with him when I was still living with the White Tigers, but I never told him. On the night I left though, I left a small love charm on his pillow. He told me when he woke up that he'd finally realised how I'd been feeling and that he'd felt the same way, but didn't recognise it. But by the time we met up again, I'd moved on."

Kai let out a breath he didn't know he'd been keeping. For some reason his mouth was dry and his heart was beating fast. "What happened then?" he asked quietly, hesitantly, as though afraid of the answer.

"He asked if he could have a memory us to cherish, so that he'd never forget his love for me." Rei looked down and blushed slightly. "So we kissed, our first and only kiss. I never would have forgotten him, he was my first love, but that bittersweet memory will be cherished by both of us as a memory of what we could have had together."

Kai looked away. This was something deep and personal that Rei was sharing with him. He felt slightly guilty that he was hearing this. He cleared his throat, which was starting to become a habit for him. "That was beautiful. It's hard to give up your first love, even if you no longer have the same feelings."

Rei turned around to face Kai. "You know what that feels like?" Kai nodded. He decided to share his memories with Rei in return for what Rei shared with him.

"Do you remember how I told you that I thought Tala was dead?" Rei nodded. "When I saw him standing there in the Abbey, my heart stopped and I didn't quite know what to feel. Relief, anger, sorrow, delight. He didn't seem as pleased to see me though."

"Later that night I came across him in a corridor. I asked him what his deal was. He said he had a problem with me. I wanted to know why. We got into a bit of an argument and I somehow lost control of myself enough to tell him how much he meant to me, like tonight with you. I told him how scared I was that I'd almost lost him."

Kai laughed softly. "The look on his face was priceless. He had no idea that anyone cared about him that much. He couldn't take what he was feeling so he ran away to his room. Of course I followed him. He'd been crying as he ran, which made me even more worried. I didn't even get to ask what was wrong before he pinned me against a wall and kissed me."

Rei stared at him curiously. "What happened, why aren't you two still together?" Kai sighed in response and looked down into Rei's eyes, showing his pain.

"I cared for him greatly, but what I felt as a child was no longer as strong. I'd been changed and I couldn't give him everything he needed. Not to mention he was still scarred. By getting into a relationship, I was actually having an adverse affect on his rehabilitation, he was becoming too co-dependant with me. We were only together for a short time, which made things even worse. I wasn't entirely stable myself, what with the whole Black Dranzer thing. I didn't even say goodbye to him when I left to go back with you guys."

Rei looked away as he saw the pain and regret in Kai's eyes. "Do you think you will ever be able to repair things with him?"

"Not like he wants. I've already met with him again and everything's over now, but I hurt him badly with my rejection, but it's the best thing for both us and everyone else." Rei nodded and Kai shook himself away from memory lane. "We should be getting ready." He moved away from Rei, not seeing the disappointment in the feline eyes as he did so.

"Sure." Rei exited the bathroom and grabbed a set of fresh clothes, leaving Kai to do whatever he needed to in the bathroom.

He sighed as he stripped off. I guess he won't get involved with me then, if he regretted his relationship with Tala. Rei frowned, pulling on a fresh pair of loose black pants. No, he didn't say he regretted being with Tala, just that they were both so unstable in the relationship. Which means he doesn't want to be involved with someone when he's trying to help them deal with problems like mine. Rei groaned miserably and pulled on a long sleeved black undershirt. Which means I have no chance right now. He pulled on the long red Chinese overshirt and tied it up completely up to his chin and tied a black sash around his waist. Although, he hasn't minded my flirting with him, but then maybe he thinks I'm just being friendly. Rei smirked as he tied on his red headband. Well, tonight I'll find out how far he's willing to go. I don't want to make the same mistake as I did with Lee and miss this chance.

Rei looked up as he heard the bathroom door open. Kai walked out then stopped as he saw him and smiled. "You look nice," he commented, moving over to the wardrobe for his clothes.

"Thanks." Rei grabbed a fresh roll of bandages then sat down on the bed and pushed his sleeves up, trying to ignore Kai, who had stripped off his gloves and top already. Kai looked over and frowned. He walked over to Rei and sat down in front of Rei, grabbing the bandages from him.

"You won't be able to do it properly," he informed Rei brusquely as he quickly started winding the white gauze around his arm.

"I did my shoulder just fine," Rei protested.

"Your shoulder wounds aren't as deep or serious. They won't bleed as much." Kai finished bandaging his left arm then started on his right forearm. Rei watched him in silence. He grinned as Kai finished. "Thanks Kai."

Kai grunted softly. "Ask me next time." He got up and walked back over to his clothes. Rei walked into the bathroom to finish doing his hair, and to let Kai have his privacy while changing. He decided on the braid again, seeing as he didn't have enough time to wrap his hair up. Kai was right, it does actually look good.

There was a sharp knock at the door and the two of them heard Tyson call out, "Rei? Kai?"

Rei went out and saw that Kai was still only half dressed, so he went over and went out to meet with Tyson and the others.

"Hey Rei," he greeted cheerfully. Then he noticed the outfit Rei was wearing. "Woah, looking spiffy Rei. What's the occasion?"

Rei sighed and rolled his eyes. Kenny answered from beside his laptop. "A dinner for the teams at seven."

"Seven?" Max looked startled. "That's in like fifteen minutes!" He grabbed onto Tyson's jacket then onto the back of Kenny's shirt and dragged them into their room to quickly get ready. Rei chuckled at their childish behaviour then went back into his own room.

Kai was just pulling on his gloves and Rei had to say that Kai looked delicious. Tight black pants tucked into those same black boots he's worn today. A high necked tight grey shirt. A long sleeveless black jacket that swirled around his calves that also had the collar turned up. Long black finger-less gloves replaced the red ones from today and were joined to the sleeveless shirt by thin silver chains that matched the thicker silver chain belt that hung on his hips attached to the tight pants.

"Wow," Rei breathed looking Kai up and down. He tried to say more, but it wouldn't come out.

Kai flushed slightly. "Thanks," he muttered. He cleared his throat again. "We should get going soon. Are those three ready yet?"

"I'll go check." Rei fumbled when he reached for the door handle, but managed to grab it and turn it on the third try and rushed out of the room and over to the other door.

Banging furiously, he called out, "Are you three ready yet?"

Kenny opened the door and came out. He was dressed rather conservatively in grey slacks and a white shirt and black tie. "Uh, we're having a few problems with Tyson."

Max came out as he heard Kenny's voice and scowled. "That's an understatement. He keeps complaining how uncomfortable the clothes feel and how he doesn't like what they look like." Max shook his head and unconsciously smoothed down his light blue sweater that went rather well with his white jeans and shoes.

"Would you like me to help?" Rei stifled a laugh at the way the two of them agreed so eagerly. The looks of relief showed how much trouble they were having with the dragon.

"Tyson?" Rei stepped cautiously into the room, cautiously considering the mess of clothes and other junk that littered the floor. Wow, I had no idea anyone could be this messy. Rei winced as he almost stepped on a half-eaten chocolate bar and made his way to stand beside Tyson who was throwing clothes out of the wardrobe and onto the large bed in frustration. "Would you like some help there?"

"Rei!" Tyson hugged him in relief. "I have nothing to wear. It all makes me look fat and ugly." Rei stifled another laugh at the extremely feminine comments.

"Well, how about this?" Rei held out a pair of jeans. "Then you can wear this." He pulled out a shirt very similar to Kai's usual shirts, sleeveless, high necked and black. "Then over that you can have this." Rei smiled in triumph as he pulled out a dark blue shirt similar to the red ones that Tyson usually wore. "Then you can wear sneakers with it."

Tyson grinned. "Rei, you're a genius!" He gave him another hug. "Thanks so much."

"Just hurry okay? We're going soon."

"Sure thing," Tyson called out as Rei left and closed the door behind him. Kenny and Max were sitting on the couch talking quietly. Kai was leaning against a wall with his eyes closed. The two looked up as he entered.

"I found him something to wear." Rei grinned. "He's worse than a girl."

"Hey!" came the indignant reply from inside the room. "I heard that."

A few minutes later Tyson emerged looking rather scrumptious himself. Everyone nodded in approval. "Are we going to go now?" Tyson asked, untying his hair and quickly brushing his fingers through it and retying it.

"Yeah." Kai moved and opened the door. "So get your ass out now or we'll be late." He hurried them out and the Bladebreakers made their way to dinner.

AN: Did you guys like? Trust me, you'll want the next chapter, I've got so much fun stuff happening, I mean, there is a party after all. *big evil knowing grin*