Chapter 8: Guard me for life

Hi – there's gonna be some fights on who's going to get to be Ray's girlfriend in the next few chapters. This chapter might be a little short though. Sorry!

Hatsumi opened her eyes to see a grayish-blue room. She lay on a bed surrounded by tubes pumping fluids into her arm. To her surprise, the only person in her room was Kai, who sat stiffly asleep in her hospital room.

As Hatsumi tried to get up, one of her tubes that led to a stand with salt water rattled loudly. Kai eyes shot open and darted towards Hatsumi.

"Finally awake?" he asked, getting up to pour her some water. He handed her the cup of water. She gulped it down thirstily. "What happened to me?"

"The doctor said the cold was using up your energy and every time you get really started up, you can suffer from extreme exhaustion," he replied, sitting on the bed beside her.

"Where's everybody?" Hatsumi asked, turning her head around to look at her surroundings. "They all went home because it's almost twelve o'clock at night," he answered.

"Why are you here?" she asked, her crimson eyes narrowing suspiciously. Kai winced at the way her eyes had turned from innocent and big to narrow and dangerous.

"Do I have to have a reason to stay? It was partly my fault getting you all worked up in the first place, so I thought I'd take care of you," he said. Hatsumi's eyes were wide as watermelons by the time he was done speaking.

"What are you staring at?" Kai snapped, then scowled.

"Gee, and just a minute ago, I thought you cared," she said sighing.

"I do..." Kai's voice trailed off. Then, he looked at Hatsumi's eyes, which had regained their former innocence. She leaned towards him and said, "Do you care enough to become my personal servant for a whole year?"

"Don't push your luck."

"Damn." Said Hatsumi, sighing.

"But I can be your personal bodyguard," Kai said smirking. Two arms wrapped around his neck and he was pulled into Hatsumi's bear hug.

"Awww, that's so sweet," she said and planted a kiss on Kai's cheek. Then she yawned and turned and lied down and mumbled a soft good night and left a confused Kai sitting in the dark. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks and he too sat down on the couch and fell asleep.

"Good morning!" burst in a bubbly Max into Hatsumi's hospital room.

"How are you doing, Hatsumi?" asked a concerned Ray with Hikki strapped to his arm.

"Just fine... where's Tyson?" asked Hatsumi, who was packing up some of her stuff before leaving from her stay at the hospital.

"RIGHT HERE!" yelled a hyper Tyson, who was snacking on some chips.

Hatsumi groaned. "Why did I ask?"

"So did you have a fun recovery with Kai here?" said Tyson slyly, spitting out pieces of chips while he talked.

Hatsumi was about to get mad when she remembered what Kai had said last night. "Bodyguard! Can you remove him from my view?"

Kai smirked and did a little bow. "Certainly." He smiled maliciously. He single-handedly lifted up Tyson and carried him out of the room and came back in with a Tyson following him looking really confused.

"Bodyguard? What did we miss?" he asked and the others nodded with agreement.

Kai and Hatsumi laughed. "Our little secret." Hatsumi said, eyes twinkling.

"What do you mean?" asked Hatsumi.

"Well, Mr. Dickinson said we have to do some schooling in science if we're going to understand the physics of a spinning beyblade," replied Ray.

"So we figured we could have some fun if we stayed here for a while and went to school with you," said Max, who was more hyper than usual.

"That's nice," said Hatsumi who walking down the sidewalk with her friends.

"And what's best of all is that other teams are coming to your school too!" hollered Tyson. Hatsumi spit out her drink and said, "More?! Like who?"

"Mariam, Ozuma, Joseph, and Dunga from the Saint Shields," said Max. Everybody knew Max liked Mariam and vice versa.

Hatsumi groaned. "No! Not that sick pervert Joseph!"

"Kane and Salima from Team Psykick and Tala and Bryan from the Demolition Boys are joining us too," said Tyson, who had bought another bag of chips when they left the hospital and was now stuffing his mouth with the chips.

"Don't forget the White Tigers – well only Lee and Mariah," said Ray.

"Oh yeah, Mariah is like your one-person fan club," laughed Tyson. Ray shot Tyson a glare. Hikki let go of Ray's arm and stepped away from him.

"Is this Mariah girl your girlfriend?" questioned Hikki. She looked depressed.

"No, don't worry about it," he said, grabbing Hikki's hand.

"RAY!"

Ray saw a flash of pink before he was tackled to the ground while Hikki was standing dumbfounded staring at a girl in pink hugging Ray.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hikki asked the girl in pink as she pried her off of Ray.

"Who are you? And what do you think you're doing, clinging onto my Ray like that?" exclaimed the pink girl.

"I'm Hikki and you're not his owner so piss off!" Hikki retorted.

Ray regained his composure and stepped in and laughed nervously, "Hey, hey, no need to fight over me! There's enough of me for everyone!"

Mariah and Hikki turned to face Ray and said in unison, "Stay out of this!"

"Go find another guy, slut, because Ray is mine!" hollered Mariah. Hikki looked hurt from being called a slut and Hatsumi was the first one to catch on. She hadn't even had a boyfriend before, let alone go on many dates.

"Hey! Nobody calls my friend a slut! Back off!" said Hatsumi stepping in between Hikki and Mariah.

"Get out of my way, bitch! This is between her and me!" yelled Mariah, her veins showing.

Hatsumi was so mad that she slapped Mariah on the cheek and said, "Go get a life!"

Mariah ran away in tears and Hatsumi just stood there looking at Mariah's retreating figure. Everybody was stunned by what took place right before their eyes.

Utada kneeled down beside a crying Hikki and comforted her. Utada said to Ray, "This is all your fault!"

"Hikki-"Ray started. "No! I don't want to listen to you!" cried Hikki. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Hikki." Ray hugged Hikki and her sobbing faded away. Then he kissed her passionately and she kissed him back.

Hatsumi smiled and glanced at the others. Utada's expression showed the same feeling she was feeling and Kai looked away from their two friends kissing. Max and Tyson looked like they were little kids and were watching an adult show. A finger tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw Kai and she just smiled.