I'm back! This was supposed to be up yesterday … darn school and my exams. On a more positive note though, I've only got one exam left so I have more time for my fics! Yay! I'm glad so many people are enjoying this, especially considering this was originally going to just be a short one shot … but things change and this is at least going to be five chapters long.
Enough blabbing, my mouth runs away with me sometimes. Enjoy the chapter!
Tyson yawned and looked at the clock again, frowning. He looked around and spotted Rei by the garden talking with Max. "Hey, have you guys seen Kai?" he asked, approaching them.
Max looked around with a frown and shook his head. "No, I haven't, not for a while."
Rei looked a bit uneasy. "He had something to take care of." Tyson looked a bit upset at this but shrugged. "He did mention that before Tyson. Besides, he should be back soon."
"How do you know?"
Rei looked at the clock. It was almost twenty past nine. "Just a hunch," he said with a hint of a smile.
In fact, it was at precisely that moment that Kai walked into the room.
"Kai." Tyson walked over to him. "Where did you disappear to? And …" he gasped. "Are you actually smiling?" Max came rushing over at this to see the unusual phenomenon. Rei laughed out loud at the two of them and Kai stared at them strangely.
"You'd think they'd never seen me smile before."
"Well it is a rather rare occurrence," Rei teased. But then he smirked at Kai. "So, how was your visit with Wyatt?"
Kai cleared his throat and Rei stared as he noticed a faint flush to Kai's painted cheeks. "Fine. He's doing better than the last time I saw him."
"You went and saw Wyatt?" Tyson frowned. "Why didn't you just say that? We could have all gone to see how he was."
"Tyson!" They turned around to see Hilary and Kenny coming into the room. She was staring at him exasperatedly. "Can't you see that Kai probably wanted to go see Wyatt on his own first?"
Tyson glared at her. "Well he still should have mentioned it to us."
"He's not a baby Tyson, he can do what he wants without asking your permission."
"I never said that, I just thought it would be courteous. I mean what did he have to hide? We all know how he feels about Wyatt."
Kai, who had just poured himself a drink, intending to enjoy the drama going on before him, suddenly choked on the bubbly drink and started coughing rather loudly, looking a bit red around the cheeks.
Tyson looked over at him in worry. "Kai, are you all right?"
"Fine," Kai assured him with a final cough. "I think I'll stick with water though. Excuse me." He placed his cup down on the table and moved towards the bathroom, glaring at the drops of sticky orange soda that had slopped onto his gloves and hand when he started coughing.
Tyson shrugged and looked over at Hilary and sighed, not really caring enough to continue the argument. He walked over to talk with Kenny and Hilary soon followed while Max and Rei glanced at each other, both with slightly stunned yet amused expressions on their faces.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" Max asked.
"I had my suspicions before." Rei looked very sly. "Have you known Kai to care that much about anyone before?"
"Nope."
Rei grinned evilly. "Well then, don't we have an interesting situation on our hands?"
Max mirrored the look. "Indeed we do."
* * *
In the bathroom, completely unaware of what was going on outside with his diabolically minded teammates, Kai mentally cursed Tyson and his innocently accurate assessment of the situation.
Why did he have to say something like that? He muttered internally, frantically scrubbing at his gloves, glaring at the slight stain the coloured bubbly liquid made. Though, he couldn't have meant it as it sounded … right? Tyson's not that perceptive, is he? Kai stopped scrubbing and stared into the mirror facing him. Maybe he is, or maybe I'm being obvious. He shook his head angrily and turned off the water. Obvious about what? There's nothing to be obvious about. Wyatt's my friend, I do care for him, but there's no possible way that anything remotely what I'm considering to be true right?
So why am I considering it if the slightest possibility that it could be true is non-existent?
Kai shook his head again and stripped off his other glove, it looked strange for him to just wear one, and he walked out of the bathroom, intending to put the gloves away with his belongings.
He was stopped on the way there by Rei and Max. He took one look at their expressions and gulped.
"Kai," Rei intoned sweetly, "do you think we could talk?"
"I have nothing to talk about, now if you'll excuse me, I should put these away." Kai tried to move away, but Max blocked the hallway. Kai glared at him, but for some reason the look had no effect on the blond boy. Damn, I must be loosing my touch.
"Oh, I think you do," Max argued.
Kai sighed. "What do you think I have to talk about then?"
"Wyatt," Rei said simply."
"Wyatt?" Damn, they noticed my slip-up. Kai just raised an eyebrow, not giving them a hint of his real thoughts, instead staring at them disbelievingly. "You came to ask about Wyatt?"
"And you of course." Max had that look in his eye that said he was going to get what he wanted one way or the other. "Don't try and worm out of this Kai, we know you care about him."
"And you know we're not just talking totally platonic," Rei added.
"If we were, you wouldn't be acting so jittery whenever he was mentioned."
"And then there was that smile …" Rei looked slyly at him. "You spent over two hours with him."
Kai sighed. "He was in the hospital, I hadn't seen him since we brought him in. I felt guilty and he is my friend. I'd do the same for any of you if you were in the hospital."
"Two hours in the same room, alone with either me or Tyson?" Max laughed disbelievingly. "I very much doubt that. I don't think you could even last an hour just alone with Rei."
Kai was about to protest then shut his mouth. It was probably true. He would go and visit them of course, but actually staying there alone in their rooms with no one else to talk to? He glared at the two of them. "Maybe I just prefer his company more."
Rei pouted mockingly and put a hand to his chest. "Oh, that hurt. Come on Kai, admit it, there's something special about him. How long have you seriously known him? A few months at most? And let's not forget you spent most of that time with us anyway, barely seeing him. It took us over a year and constant companionship with you to finally accept us as friends."
"Maybe you guys just broke the barrier for me, made it easier for me to accept people." Kai winced at this, not really thinking it was right. Rei and Max just shared a look and stared at him. "Or not."
"You know you like him Kai, why is it so hard to say it?" Max was studying the older boy curiously.
Kai glared at the two of them. "There's nothing to say, now just back off." The two of them took a sudden step back at the vehement tone in his voice and Kai used the opportunity to move past them to the room where their bedrolls were kept.
"I think we struck a nerve," Max commented.
"Yeah," Rei agreed, staring after Kai.
* * *
Kai had avoided being alone with Rei and Max after that night, or made sure there was some way for him to escape them. When the time came for Wyatt's return to school he made a decision.
"I'm going back to the school for a while," he told the Bladebreakers and Hilary when they gathered at his summons on Sunday night.
"What?" Hilary, strangely enough, was the first to protest and question this. "Why?"
Kai shrugged. "I'm still technically enrolled there and I'm paying for board. It's not like I'll be that far away. Besides, now that everything with the Psykics is over, we should get back to our lives. You guys will be back in school too. And it's not like we won't see each other. You guys are definitely not skipping out on training."
"Oh, I guess that's alright." Hilary seemed a bit dejected but smiled at him anyway. "And if you're back at your school you can help your friend Wyatt out."
"Yeah, that too." Rei shared a glance with Max, both smiling slightly seeing a faint look of embarrassment on Kai's features. He caught it and glared at them. "Rei, I'd advise you to get those thoughts out of your head. You too Max, if you both know what's good for you."
"Yes, oh mighty captain," Rei answered sarcastically.
Max just gave him am innocent, and almost believable look. "What thoughts would those be Kai?"
Kai just glared at them, not caring about the confused looks from the other three. "I'll be going back early tomorrow morning and I'll see you all that afternoon at the park." They all nodded at this. "Alright. That's all I had to say then."
Kai was suddenly surprised then as Hilary ran over to him and caught him in a hug. His eyes opened wide and Tyson snickered at him. If it had been anyone else Kai would have pushed them away, but he couldn't hurt a girl. That didn't stop him from moving back as far as he could and squirming to get out of the embrace.
"Don't do that again," Kai told her seriously as she moved away.
Hilary glared at him. "Jeez Kai, it was just a hug, lighten up why don't you."
"Don't mind him Hil," Rei said in an amused voice. "He just likes to save his hugs for his special someone."
"Rei," Kai growled menacingly once then he ignored the smirking Chinese boy. "I'm going to get some sleep considering I have classes early in the morning."
"I should get going too," Kenny said. "Hope you enjoy going back to school Kai and I'll see you tomorrow afternoon." Kai nodded and Kenny looked over at Hilary. "You want to walk home with me Hilary?"
"Sure. See you later Kai." She and Kenny left the rest of the Bladebreakers in Tyson's dojo.
"So you're really leaving then," Tyson said. "I guess it's not like we won't see you again, but I kind of got used to having you around again." Tyson sniffed. "I'll miss your grumpiness in the mornings."
Kai rolled his eyes. "It's a thirty minute walk just outside of town, I'm not moving to Russia."
"I know, but I'll miss you just the same." Tyson yawned. "Guess you're not the only one who should hit the sack Kai. Should we get going guys?"
"We'll be there with you in a second Tyson," Rei told him. Tyson shrugged and walked out of the room. Kai watched Rei and Max suspiciously as they watched him in return.
"Have fun at school Kai," Max told him with a smile. "And you know we're always here if you need anything."
Kai stared at him and shook his head. Why was everyone treating it as though he was leaving them for a year to go to some remote country where he couldn't even contact them in any way? He was moving half-an-hour's walk away to a school they ran past every morning during their daily training regime.
Rei seemed to understand what was going though Kai's head and grinned. "Don't worry, I think everyone will get used to you not being here fairly quickly. You've probably got more interesting things to do back at your school anyway." Rei's smirk left nothing innocent about his remark possible.
"Rei," Kai growled warningly at him again.
Rei laughed. "Have fun Kai and say hi to Wyatt for us all." He walked out of the room with a grinning Max close behind.
Kai shook his head after them and followed them back to the sleeping area, for the last time he would be there with all of the others for a while. He hated to admit it, but he would miss being with his team all the time again. But Wyatt needed him more. His team could look after themselves for a while. They'd done fine without him for a while, they didn't always need him to be around and they needed to get on with their lives as well. See, his going back wasn't just about Wyatt, he was helping his team to become more independent. Of course it wasn't just about Wyatt.
* * *
AN: *snicker* I love humiliating Kai, ah the many wonders of Kai torture … humorous Kai torture. Hope you all enjoyed that.
Laters.