Chapter Three — The life of the Party
"I invited him." There were glares sent Takao's way which he shrugged off. "Sorry, guess I forgot to mention it."
"You think?" Kai asked sarcastically. He brushed past Takao with an exasperated shake of his head and made his way over to Max and Kenny after giving Tala a pleasant nod of greeting. The redhead was obviously used to such a greeting, for he returned it then turned to Rei, who still approached.
The neko-jin smiled and held out his hand. "Nice to see you again Tala."
Tala smirked in amusement but shook the proffered hand. "Same to you Rei." After this awkward moment, conversations sprung up again. A few people eyed Tala warily but dismissed him soon after as Takao sprung on top of him in his usual enthusiastic display of affection.
"Tala! I'm so glad you could make it!" Tala's face flashed with irritation and a quick splash of horror was mingled in as he tried to get the excited boy off him.
"Takao," Max came over and scolded him. "Is that any way to treat your guest."
Takao removed Tala from his choke hold and stuck his tongue out at Max. "You're just jealous 'cause you didn't get a hug like that."
Max laughed. "That's because I came over to Russia with you."
"Right, just another excuse Maxie. You know you're jealous."
"Yeah right, you just can't see the truth, even if it is right in front of you."
"Jealous."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Uh, guys, this isn't the best time." Kenny decided to break up the playful argument before it got out of hand.
"Oh," Takao groaned in disappointment. "But Chief, we were just getting started."
"Exactly, and it's too early to have one of your and Max's fights." Kenny held up his hand to stop any protests from the two and they pouted, which drew a laugh from everyone nearby. He then smiled and held out his hand to Kai. "So how are you Kai? It's been a while."
Kai smiled and took his hand. "It has. And I've been very well thank you Chief." Kai's pleasant and polite response seemed to shock everyone nearby save for Rei, and Takao, who was still a bit surprised at Kai's new behaviour. Rei had almost a week to get to know the new Kai a bit better in his house, on the plane and on the train.
"Wow Kai, have you been taking lessons on how to be human?" Takao joked. Max Kenny and Rei all winced, ready for the ice Kai glare or the deadly calm sound of Kai's voice as he delivered a deadly tirade of insults on Takao.
"Why yes Takao," Kai replied calmly. "I'm surprised you knew. They were on at the same time as your class on how to get up before noon and eating like a human instead of a horse." He grinned at the longhaired boy and clapped Max on the shoulder. "It's good to see you Max," he said as greeting, then walked away from his team to the food table.
Rei was the first to react by bursting out laughing. Max was soon to follow with a startled chuckle at both Kai's words and Takao's expression. Kenny smiled and tried to wake Takao from his shock by waving his hand in front of the shocked boy's face.
"Did ... did Kai just make a joke?" Takao asked after regaining his voice. This set Rei off into a fresh peal of laughter and he fell onto the floor holding his stomach and leaking tears from the corners of his eyes. Max wasn't much better. He was holding onto the back of a chair for support.
"You ... you should ... have seen ... your face." Max choked out between laughs. Then he slipped and fell onto the floor beside Rei, who had tried to get up, but started laughing again when Max fell over.
"You can you know," Dizzy said. "I took a picture of it." Kenny looked at the screen of his computer and started laughing. A few others peered around the screen, trying to find out what was so funny. On seeing the picture of Takao's face they too burst out laughing.
"It's not that funny," Takao huffed, annoyed that he was the but of a joke again. This was worse than the other times though — this time he was the butt of *Kai's* joke. /I suppose that one time won't matter, but if it happens again, I'll have to do something./ Takao glanced over at his captain and hid a smile. He was starting to like the new Kai.
***
After the greetings the party continued.
As the only girls there, Mariah and Emily stuck together. Their fierce rivalry from last year had given way after Emily's defeat by Kai at the World Tournament to form a strong friendship between the two. They had kept in contact with each other since then and renewed it by talking together throughout the party. Rei was with the other White Tigers, catching up with them and laughing at various anecdotes told by Lee and Kevin. Gary was also with them, but was more concerned with food, like Tyson. Eventually the two of them hung out at the table and didn't really talk so much as stuff their faces. Max and Kenny were with Michael, Eddy and Steve, chatting about various things, Beyblading, other sports, Max's mother, and occasionally a few more scientific techniques developed by the All-Stars, mostly for Kenny's benefit. The spectacled boy himself looked rather lost without Emily to talk to about stuff he liked, but wasn't particularly dissatisfied with the company he was keeping. Max, as always, was cheery and smiling, which would normally get on a person's nerves, but was a welcome relief to others who hadn't seen too much cheer.
Kai counted himself among those.
What was it about those four people that made him feel so warm? What was it he felt?
Friendship?
He'd never had friendship in his life before, maybe that's why he felt so different. He knew that he'd started to act rather strangely lately, but it was all because of this feeling he'd had.
It was also because of the dreams.
Kai shivered in the warm air of the room.
Only one person took notice of this.
He smirked and walked over to the blue-haired captain of the Bladebreakers. The crimson eyed boy looked up at his approach and looked at him with that familiar cool gaze. /Guess he hasn't changed as much as he appears. Gods, how gullible can they be?/
"Tala," Kai greeted him.
"Kai." Tala smirked at him. "I love the act you've got going."
"It's not an act."
"You just keep trying to convince yourself that. I know you better. No one else seems to have spotted it yet. Not even Rei."
"I don't know what you're talking about Tala." Kai's eyes held a shadow of tension, and Tala's smirk widened. /So, I was right, he is hiding something./
"Whatever," he replied, nonchalantly. Kai looked at him suspiciously. Why was he giving up so easily? "So, how have you been for the past year?"
Kai looked at him suspiciously still, but decided to be polite and answer. "I've been a lot better without Voltaire."
Tala froze at the mention of Biovolt's owner, and the man who had previously controlled his life. What happened next had Kai shocked. Tala smiled and looked at him with warm amusement in his eyes. "I'm sure you would have been. Everything's been disbanded now. Biovolt I mean. Ian and Spencer have gone back to their families and Bryan is staying with a nearby family." Tala noticed Kai's look. "We're all getting a bit of psychiatric help."
"What about you?"
Tala looked at Kai with a smile, but his eyes were wary and cold. Kai was taken aback. What did he say to spark this reaction in him? "You actually care about what happened to me?"
"Yes, I do. I was a teammate of yours for a while. And we grew up together."
Tala snorted and looked away. He didn't bother to hide his anger from showing on his face. "Well I don't particularly want you to care."
Kai was getting annoyed. "Look Tala, I'm trying to be nice. What's your problem?"
Tala whirled around to face him again. "You're my problem Kai. Just back off. If you don't want to fix your problems, then at least have the decency to admit there are problems. Things don't go away just by ignoring them."
"What the hell are you talking about Tala?" Neither of the Russians had noticed that people were looking toward their heated discussion.
"Don't play with me Kai. When you're ready to fix what you've broken then I'll be willing to talk. Until them, I'd rather not be anywhere near you." With that, Tala turned away and walked out of the room, leaving the others in the room either staring at the door or at Kai. He was standing there staring after Tala with an emotionless expression on his countenance that conveyed nothing of how he felt but only a vague sense of confusion and distress.