Tyson gets a cat...and Rei doesn't like it! Just a short little ReiKai. I love those two together!
"Hey Rei! Meet Nipsy!"
"Huh?" Rei turned and found a cat flung into his arms. The cat, a fat russian blue, sniffed, hissed at him, and clawed his face, leaping free. Rei touched the bleeding scratches as Tyson picked Nipsy up again. The cat was staring at him, staring him out. He hissed softly and lashed out, smacking the cat across the face.
Tyson leaped back. "Hey! What did you do that for!" Rei glared at him.
"Keep that thing away from me!" He growled, stalking away. Tyson turned to Kai, who had been watching the whole scenario.
"What's his problem?"
"Well, apart from the fact that that cat is ugly and repellant, you seem to have forgotten that Rei is part cat. Meaning he doesn't want another cat around."
And it was true. Whenever Rei saw Nipsy he'd glare, and if Nipsy touched anything belonging to him he would hiss menacingly. The final straw came when Nipsy took to sitting on Kai's lap. It was annoying. Nipsy was sitting on -Kai-. HIS Kai! For days Rei watched, boiling with terratorial jealousy, until one night he was unable to stand it anymore. He lunged over, grabbed Nipsy, and flung him away. However Nipsy, wanting to irritate his 'rival' slunk back onto Kai's lap.
With an angered hiss, Rei hurled the cat away bodily, settling himself on Kai's lap. "Miiine!" He hissed. Nipsy finally took the hint and stalked off, leaving Rei sat on a very bewildered Kai's lap. "Um...Rei...what...are you doing?" Asked Max. Rei glared at him and snuggled into Kai's chest. "Mine. Huh. Stupid damn cat." Then he seemed to realise what he was doing and leaped up. "Oh my God I'm so sorry!" He gasped, blushing violently. He stood for a second, positively glowing, then turned and ran up the stairs.
He was going to kill that cat. He was going to kill it for making him make a fool of himself. He collapsed on his bed, so embarrassed he could have died, right there and then. He didn't hear the door open. He didn't hear the footsteps. He only noticed he wasn't alone when a hand touched his shoulder. He jumped, writhing away.
"Hey." He stopped in the act of turning over. It was Kai.
"I'm sorry." He mumbled, voice muffled by the pillows. He sneaked a look up through the curtain of his hair, which he had been brushing before that cat...that damned cat...had provoked him. Kai was looking down at him, a strange expression on his face. He wished Kai would leave, but instead the russian sat down next to him. There was a long, uncomfortable silence, then:
"You were jealous of a cat?" Somehow Kai made it sound far more stupid than it had seemed to Rei at the time.
"He was doing it to annoy me."
"Doing what?"
"Hanging around you."
"What? Rei, don't talk rubbish."
"Not rubbish." Rei replied sullenly. "He doesn't like me. He was trying to make me angry."
"Well it certainly worked, didn't it? Why were you angry that I was stroking him?"
"Because he knows you're mine." He answered without thinking. Then he sat up, one hand covering his mouth. Kai frowned.
"I'm yours? Well that's news to me. I wasn't aware I belonged to anyone." Kai said coldly, standing up. Rei gazed after him as he walked out. He paused in the doorway. "How dare you think of me as your property?" He snapped, before walking away. Rei watched the empty doorway for a moment, tears filling his eyes, then collapsed back onto his bed, tears running down his face in two bitter streams.
"Kai, what did you say to him?" Asked Tyson accusingly, waving a hand at the locked door of Rei's room. Kai glared at him, then stalked away. "Hey! Kai! I'm talking to you! Hello? Are you listening?"
"It's none of your business." Hissed Kai, still walking.
"Kai, he hasn't left his room all day. He hasn't eaten all day. That means there's something wrong with him, and he was only like this after you went up to talk to him! What did you say to him! Do you want him to get ill because of you?" Kai stood still, silent. "Well?" Tyson pressed, wanting answers. He wasn't prepared for the outburst he got...
"Well why don't you try telling him that -I- am not his PROPERTY!" Yelled Kai, walking into his own room and slamming the door behind him. Tyson gave up on Kai as a lost cause and knocked on Rei's door again. "Rei, do you want anything to eat?"
"No." The voice that replied was blank and dull.
"Anything to drink?"
"No."
"Anything at all?"
"No. But thank you for asking."
Tyson sat down outside the door. "Rei, what's wrong?" There was a silence from behind the door. "Rei?" He could hear sniffling. Was Rei...crying? "Rei, are you crying?"
"Yes. Yes I am." It was barely a whisper but Tyson heard it. "I didn't mean to say it. I didn't mean to. It just came out!"
"What did?"
The door opened abruptly and Tyson fell backwards into the room. Rei was standing above him, hair floating round him in the breeze from the window. Through the wave of hair Tyson could see that his eyes were red from crying, and there were smudges across his face where he's wiped his tears away. "He asked why I was angry with the cat. And...I said it was because the cat knew he was mine..." He choked back a sob. "He-He was so angry..." He collapsed onto the bed. "I love him Tyson. That's why I said it. I didn't mean it to sound like that..." Rei started crying again, sobbing into his hands. Tyson sat down next to him and patted his back gingerly. "And now he hates me!" Wailed Rei, just short of hysterical.
Tyson watched him cry for a second, then stood up. "Hold on a sec." He hurried down the landing, then hammered on Kai's door. "Kai, get out here!"
"What?"
Kai cracked his door open, and Tyson grabbed his arm. "Come and talk to him. He thinks you hate him." Kai was about to yank his arm away, then his face softened and he let Tyson pull him along. He hovered in the doorway, hesitant, then Tyson pushed him in and shut the door behind him. He took one look at Rei crying his heart out and immediately felt like a horrible monster. He sat down next to Rei and slipped an arm round his shoulder. "I don't hate you."
Rei jumped and looked up. "K-Kai! I-I thought you were Tyson!"
"I'm sorry Rei. I didn't mean to make you cry..." Began Kai. Rei interrupted him, desperate to explain.
"I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean it like it sounded, Kai!" Kai put a finger over Rei's lips, stopping him from apologising.
"No. Don't apologise. It's my fault. I don't care what you said." Rei leaned back, holding Kai's hand away.
"I love you. That's why I said it. It knew. It was trying to make me angry, and-" The hand was back, and Rei looked up into Kai's eyes, wondering what Kai was going to say. He didn't think he could bear it if Kai got angry again. He closed his eyes, waiting to be rejected. However, no such rejection came; instead, cool fingers brushed across his lips, then Kai's arms wrapped around Rei's waist, pulling him closer. He opened his eyes, hardly daring to believe that what was happening was actually happening to him.
"K-Kai!"
"Shh. Don't say anything..." And then Kai's lips pressed against Rei's. Rei clutched at Kai, his heart beating rapidly, and then Kai broke away, eyes searching Rei's. Suddenly, a click, and a soft padding. Both Rei and Kai turned to look, and there was Nipsy. Kai let go as Rei hurled himself onto all fours, hissing and spitting. Nipsy took one look, and then pelted away. Rei sat up, shaking his head. "I hate that cat."
"I guessed." Said Kai lightly, sliding onto the floor and folding his arms around Rei from behind.
Rei leaned back into his arms, smiling as Kai ran a hand through his hair, pale fingers contrasting sharply with the ebony stream. "I was so jealous. -I- wanted to be sat with you. I wanted you to stroke -me-."
"Well now I am. And..." Kai sighed. "It's been bothering me since I said it. If you want me to be yours, Rei, I am. I was angry yesterday, and...I know it's no excuse, but...something happened around now, a long time ago. I...was angry."
"Hm?"
"My mother died. And...I got sent to my grandfather. But...it's no excuse. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"
"I already have!"
"Mow-ow." Rei slithered onto Kai's lap, turning to glare at Nipsy as he appeared once more at the door.
"Miine!" He hissed. Nipsy turned and fled, and Rei snuggled deeper into Kai's arms, this time safe in the knowledge that Kai -was- his. "All mine..."
fin