Chapter Five — The Nightmare of Memories

Rei woke up feeling a lot better than he had for a long time. Not only did he feel like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he also had an unusual and very comfortably warm feeling around his stomach. He sighed in contentment and opened his eyes slightly, looking down towards the source of the warm feeling.

There was a pair of arms wrapped around his torso.

Rei looked around and saw Kai sleeping peacefully against his back, a slight smile playing about his features. Rei's eyes softened at the sight and he grinned. Their blue-haired captain looked so different when he let his guard down. Before, even in sleep, he never did that.

The raven-haired blader looked then at his clock. 4 am. Too early even for Kai to rise. So Rei snuggled back into Kai and drifted back off, his mind filled with warm thoughts of his captain.

***

Kai's dreams on the other hand were anything but warm and peaceful, despite how he looked to Rei.

//The cold grey landscape of his dreams caught him again as it had before. The whirling sensations would not leave him alone and disorientation engulfed him completely. Once again he came to a rest in the shifting mass of emptiness and once again he saw the child.

The child of the grey.

The child of innocence stripped.

Is that me? The words echoes around the cavernous landscape returning to him and distorting to say 'Is that him?'

Him?

A sudden image of a small red-haired ice-blue eyed child filled his mind. He was tied down and beaten before his eyes. He cried out for them to stop, but the beater did not comply. Punishment. That was the only word he knew for this, but something else bloomed in his mind.

Betrayal?

Why would this child before him feel betrayed?

Why did his eyes shed tears with mine as though I were the betrayer?

'You are.'//

Kai flinched violently and came awake, the words of his dreams still echoing around his head.

"Tala," he whispered.

Kai tried to raise a hand to his head, but found that his arms were occupied with something else. He looked over and froze.

Rei was snuggled closely to him, his face only inches away from Kai's own. Kai tried to remember what happened last night as his breathing quickened at the sight of the sleeping raven beauty.

Rei had been crying, he was upset about something. They were in the gardens and Rei had started to doze off in his arms when he'd finally calmed down. Kai was feeling pretty tired himself and managed to keep Rei awake long enough so that they could get back to the hotel they were staying at.

Luckily, few people had still been at the party, considering the late hour. Only Max, Takao and Kenny were left, and they were staring to head out also. They had booked a room at a different hotel, so they all parted ways at the front of the stadium and walked into the night.

Kai thought he'd seen a glimpse of red and white when leaving, but dismissed it when he realised Rei was falling asleep again.

They managed to make their way over to the hotel without trouble and got up to the room they'd decided to book together that morning before going to the party at the Beystadium. Once reaching the room, they had both collapsed on the bed and had fallen asleep almost immediately, barely having wit enough to pull covers over themselves.

/Which is probably why we're still on top of an unmade, though rather rumpled, bed, huddled up close to each other./ Kai just thanked the heavens that this hotel had heating, other wise they would have frozen, body heat or not.

Rei stirred slightly and drew Kai closer as the older boy tried to pull away, but Kai managed to gently break his grip so that the boy would continue sleeping, then draped his long coat over Rei, to keep him warm.

Then he went to go have a shower.

***

Rei frowned suddenly at the loss of warmth and started to stir more fretfully. He shivered slightly and awoke. After opening his eyes it took him a few minutes of sleepy thoughts to realise where he was again. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, unheeding of the warm coat that fell of him as he moved, and got off the bed and walked over to the other door.

He didn't notice the light shining under the door, or the slight wisps of steam that rose from under it.

He wasn't quite ready to meet the sight of an almost naked Kai brushing his still-wet hair in front of a slightly steamed up mirror.

Rei's face flushed and his eyes opened wide in realisation of what he was seeing. As Kai turned that calm crimson gaze to meet his nervously embarrassed one, he managed to stutter a few words.

"K-Kai, I … I didn't mean … uh … I … uh …"

Kai merely continued to look at the fed-faced Rei as he stumbled his way out of his previous sleep-fuddled state. He placed his brush back down on the vanity and walked past Rei and back into the bedroom.

"I'm done, you can have the bathroom now."

Rei didn't move for a while. His face was still red and his breathing uneven. Even after the door closed behind Kai, he still couldn't get the image of Kai standing in front of the mirror with nothing but a towel around his waist.

Rei shook himself out of his thoughts and turned on the shower. He undressed and got in, unbinding his hair as he did so.

He was still thinking about Kai. About that gorgeously sculpted body and his beautiful, yet distant face. About those deep eyes that hid so much, yet sparkled with the most unbelievable intensity when he let his emotions free. About how caring Kai could truly be, despite his reluctance to get close to people. About how warm he felt when he had wrapped his arms around Rei.

It wasn't until after Rei had finished showering and pondering on the beautiful mystery that is Kai that he realised there was something a bit strange about how Kai looked when Rei walked in on him before.

The blue triangular marks on his face had still been there even after the shower.

***

Rei peeked out nervously. In his sleepy mindset earlier, Rei had forgotten to take fresh clothes into the bathroom with him.

Kai was sitting, fully dressed now, on the bed with his arms wrapped around one knee brought up to his chest. He leaned his chin on his knee and was staring out the large window into the light snowfall. He looked so peaceful and melancholy and Rei had a sudden desire to know what was going on inside his mind at that moment.

The moment of peace was disturbed as Kai turned to look at him, sensing that someone was staring at him. "Are you done?"

"Yeah." Rei opened the door fully and walked out, trying to appear nonchalant about walking around in a towel in front of Kai. /Thank gods I have such long hair,/ he thought as he walking, noting that most of his raven locks covered his back and some curled over his chest. Rei had no idea that this image was probably more alluring than if he had put his hair up.

"Good." Kai was trying not to stare as Rei moved gracefully towards his bags. "I have to brush my teeth." He got up and walked over to the bathroom again. He stopped and turned around to look at Rei again.

"Oh, Max called. There's another gathering today at lunch."

"Right." Rei didn't turn around for fear that he was blushing. Kai continued to stare at him for a little longer then entered the bathroom once again.

Rei let out a breath as he heard the door closed. /I wonder if that's going to happen a lot./ He pulled out his clothes. /Not that I minded the sight of Kai in a towel, but I rather prefer not to be in such embarrassing situations./

***

When Kai cautiously entered the main room once again, Rei was sitting on the ground, already starting to rewrap his hair.

"Why don't you ever leave it out?"

Rei looked up, surprised at Kai's question.

"In this weather it'd get too wind blown. The tangles would be enough to give me nightmares." Rei grinned, continuing with his task.

Kai returned the small smile. "I didn't mean now, but why do you always keep it up for every occasion? You could let it loose sometimes."

Rei shrugged. "I don't know why, it just feels more natural to have it wrapped up." He looked closely at Kai. "I suppose it's like your marks, it helps define a part of who I am."

Kai froze, those innocent ignorant words sending a chill down his spine. Rei had no idea what he was talking about yet his description was so accurate that Kai wondered suddenly if he'd let too much out as he tried to loosen up.

Rei finished doing his hair and got up, aware that his words had upset Kai somehow. "Kai?" he walked over to his friend. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Kai looked at Rei with those familiar cold eyes and Rei took a mental step back.

/What have I done? He's back to what he was before./ Rei studied Kai with a hurt expression. /Why won't he let me know more about him?/ Rei decided to take a chance.

"Kai? Where did you get those marks?"

Kai studied Rei. /Why is he being so persistent? Why does he care?/ Kai recognised that to be the part of himself that hid and frightened people away. He knew that he didn't need to be so defensive any more, his grandfather and Biovolt were gone, he couldn't be hurt any more, so why couldn't he tell Rei about this?

/Because I'm still scared of what he can do to me./ And that was the crux of the problem. He couldn't let anyone close because they would just end up hurting him.

But looking into those hurt golden pools, Kai knew that Rei would never intentionally hurt him. If he really wanted to change like he promised himself, he would have to take this first risky step.

"In the abbey."

Rei looked surprised that Kai had actually answered. He looked deeper into Kai and saw that he was completely vulnerable, something he'd never been before. /He wants to trust me!/ Rei realised with wide eyes.

Rei looked at him encouragingly. "What happened?"

Kai turned away and sat down on the bed, gesturing for Rei to do the same. He sighed and looked over at Rei. "When I was very young, I was taken away from my parents by my grandfather to become part of the Biovolt project. I was taken to the abbey. These tattoos are a mark of my slavery, my belonging to the project."

Rei looked slightly horrified. "But the others, the Demolition boys, they don't have these marks."

"No, they don't. I was the original project, the first experiment. When Tala and the others arrived, I had been there almost two years, I think."

"You think?"

"I don't actually remember much of the Abbey from my younger days, and I don't really remember my escape either. All I can really remember is pain and horror. The only way to relive myself of the pain was to become the best, to become better. I know now that I had been brainwashed to do that, it was part of the project, but then, it was the only way to escape the pain."

A single tear trickled down Kai's cheek and Rei's heart went out to him.

"Kai."

The blue-haired blader looked at him imploringly. "Rei, you can't tell anyone this, please, I don't want them to know about my past. I don't want pity and I don't want sympathy."

Rei nodded. "Of course, what are friends for?" he smiled at Kai.

"Friends." Kai looked at him for a moment before returning the warm smile. "I suppose we are that."