Authoress Note: Sorry for the long update. I finally sat down and typed this up.
Disclaimer: The boys and Hilary aren't mine. The lyrics are "Believe" by Breaking Benjamins... might make a few mores chapters with their songs... they are great!
Chapter 5
Believe
-Don't tread the water
Just stay still
I'll not be bothered
By you until
I'm picking sides
And pulling the strings
I'm living lies
And shedding the skin
I'm open wide
And letting you in
I'm wronging rights-
Tyson tapped his foot impatiently on the ugly gray carpeted area, glancing between the clock on the wall and the door of the gate every thirty seconds. The bluenette was not one for waiting and this was certainly no exception to that rule as he waited for his two best friends to arrive. The plane had been expected to have already arrived ten minutes prior, and it was driving Tyson up the wall.
"Calm down, Tyson. You are going to stomp a hole in the ground and burn the clock off the wall with your glare if you don't chill out!" exclaimed Hilary flipping through her magazine as she sat in a seat next to the impatient dragon who proceeded to stick out his tongue at the brunette.
"Sorry if I was disturbing your important studying there of…what is it? 'How to paint toe nails to their potential?' What the fuck is that garbage?" he asked glancing over the article Hilary's eyes had been fixed on.
"I'll have you know that is only part of the article, thank you!"
"What? Is the other part about how to save a third world country from the ever growing threat of foot fungus?"
"That is just sick and disturbing, Tyson. No. It is on how different style of open toed shoes can really show off your feet."
"You are hopeless! I liked it better when you were all about making mud pies."
"Which if I remember correct, and I always am correct, I would throw them at your face. What is with you anyway? You have been edgy ever since Christmas morning. Something is bugging you. What is it? I'm hear to listen," she said folding shut her magazine, and shifting in her seat.
"Nothing is wrong Hil. What is it with everyone? You wake up a little cranky one day and suddenly the dawn of the apocalypse is upon us!"
Hilary wrinkled her nose at him. " 'Everyone'? … Oh, are you still mad Kai didn't come over for Christmas?" Hilary asked ask sincerely as she could. "You know he probably already had plans…"
"With me Hil. Kai and I planned to spend the break together and go to the movies, bowling, caroling on Christmas Eve…"
"Kai…caroling?" Hilary almost fell out of her chair in laughter about the stoic Russian singing in front of random people about peace, good will, and everlasting joy. "Sounds more to me that you planned that, not Kai." Tyson crossed his arms and turned to face away from Hilary.
"He agreed to it all a couple of days before Christmas. And when I dropped off his present Christmas Eve, he didn't answer. And I checked on him yesterday. The present was still outside his door as if it had never been touched! I went to all that trouble picked out his present and working a double shift to afford it and he wouldn't touch it!"
"You're a little over the edge. Maybe he's not in his dorm. He might have gone home for a few days. Think Tyson…for once!" groaned Hilary.
"For your information Miss I-Know-Everything, Kai told me he sold all his houses and had no where else to live right now!"
"Geez, you are very touchy about this… oh, I get it."
"What? What do you get?" asked Tyson slowly turning back to face his friend.
-Believe
I don't care what you want
I just want mine
Shut up
Smart little bitch
I don't need lies
I don't care what you want
I just want mine
Get up
Force it to fit
Confined inside-
"You have a major crush on Kai! Now don't try and deny it! He is all you ever talk about! 'Kai this', 'Kai that', 'Kai said', 'I hope Kai liked his present'…" Hilary rang off in a mocking tone.
"That is absurd! I-"
"Tyson, you haven't even asked me if I liked my present. And right now you are so fixated on Kai's 'disappearance' that you aren't thinking straight…not that you ever did."
"You think he's ok?"
"See, you just missed my crack about you."
"I am not like that!"
"Oh, you aren't are you? Then why is it you only talk about him, try to please him, gain his approval, and why did you rearrange your schedule last semester to be in his classes? And why don't you see Rei and Max waving frantically at you as if their arms are going to fall off?"
Tyson spun around to see the American and Chinese boys walking through the gate with their packs on their backs and doing just as Hilary had claimed them to be doing. As they arrived over, Tyson's expression flipped and he embraced the two of them in a giant bear hug.
"We are happy to see you too buddy!" laughed Rei managing to breath in the midst of the hug. "So are we going to kick this New Year's Eve celebration or what?" Tyson laughed and led his former teammates towards the parking lot.
"So how has your break been so far?" asked Tyson, stepping into the driver's seat while Max had called shotgun and Rei and Hilary slipped into the passenger seats. Tyson easily pulled out of the parking spot as Max and Rei went on about the things they each had planned to do before their colleges started up again. Hilary kept asking how their old friends were doing as well, and they only received compliments about the White Tiger X and the PBB All Star teams.
"So how have you been spending your time off?" asked Max winking, but leaving Tyson in the dark as to why.
"Well, I was suppose to hang with Kai, but he disappeared again," Tyson replied trying to no sound as depressed about it as much as he really was. Hilary was the only one who caught on to the dragon's disappointment.
"That's what Kai was always good for, since we first met him," laughed Max. "He always managed to disappear from under our noses without a trace. I was ready to draw a 'Where's Kai' book instead of 'Waldo'!" Rei and Hilary burst into laughter at the joke as Tyson also found a little humor in Max's comment.
"Yeah, but he never let us down," Rei pointed out. "I'm sure he'll show up when we last expect it!"
"Doesn't Tala also go to your college? How is he doing? Are we going to run into him?" questioned Max.
"No, he went to his girlfriend's for a New Year's Eve Party. He probably will be gone for another week. Knowing Hayasa, she's going to drag him on a vacation with her," giggled Hilary.
They pulled into the college parking lot and Tyson and Hilary led their two friends to Tyson's dorm, which Hilary had spend the few days she had come back to the college cleaning up. Rei immediately took over the kitchen area, exiling the other three from the said section of the dorm. Meanwhile Hilary, Tyson and Max were arguing over which movie they would watch first to start off their movie marathon.
Finally settling on Troy, much to Hilary's delight to see the opening scene of Brad Pitt's role (A/N: If you ever saw Troy you would agree with me and Hilary and faint), Rei brought out some sandwiches and bowls of chips, popcorn, and pretzels, and of course a case of soda. Tyson couldn't help but point out Achilles' "flaws" in the movie just because it would annoy Hilary to death. Rei and Max couldn't hide their laughter when Hilary finally had enough of Tyson as he jokingly cheered during Achilles' death scene, and dumped the bowl of popcorn on Tyson's head.
Seeing as it was only 8:30 PM when the movie concluded, they put in the third Lord Of the Rings and immediately got hooked into the film. No one noticed when Rei got up in the middle of the movie to cook the shrimp and prepare what was left of food.
When the phone rang during the last twenty minutes of the movie, it was only then did Tyson snap out of his trance to the movie.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Tyson. I just wanted to phone an early Happy New Year."
"You too Tala. How's Hayasa's family treating you? I can tell you are at least still alive," he sniggered into the telephone.
"Har har har. Well they are all too drunk to think straight. How's everything over there?"
"Great! Max, Hilary, and Rei are all over."
"Oh…Kai? He's not over there?
"He's not in his dorm. I told him he was invited to come and join us, but he disappeared again."
"Oh, he's in his dorm…err…can you check on him for me please?"
"Sure! Is there something wrong with him?"
"No. No. I just don't want him to be alone for New Years. I know it is not fun."
"OK. I'll go and drag him out. Talk to you later." As Tyson hung up the phone, he felt as if something wasn't right. Tala had sounded so sure that Kai was in his dorm room, but then why hadn't the phoenix replied to his messages or answered when he knocked on the door? It didn't make any sense at all to the bluenette.
"That was Tala?" asked Hilary.
"Yeah. He just wanted to say Happy New Years. I'll be right back. I'm going to go and get Kai over here."
"But I thought Kai disappeared again?" asked Rei.
"Me too, but Tala sounded rather sure that he has been in his dorm. I'll be right back."
Tyson left the room and hurried as quickly as he could towards Kai's dorm room. Why would Kai deliberately hide from him just after they had made plans to hang out together during the break? Tyson wondered if this was Kai's way of telling him that he did not want to be around Tyson anymore. Did Kai hate him?
Many more questions like that buzzed around in the dragon's head until he reached the familiar door that Kai lived behind. Sucking in his breath, it took Tyson what seemed like an eternity to knock on the door, when in reality it was just a few minutes.
15 seconds…30…Tyson knocked again feeling his stomach tie up in knots with each passing minute. "Kai? Kai I know you're in there!" Casually glancing down, Tyson noticed the present had disappeared. So Mr. Sour pants was home. Another 10 seconds slowly passed until Tyson heard the door handle jerk. The door was not opened with much haste nor was it opened enough to be welcoming to the dragon.
-Don't pull me under
Into the deep
I often wonder
How it should be
I'm picking sides
And pulling the strings
I'm living lies
And shedding the skin
I'm open wide
And letting you
I'm wronging rights-
Kai stood between the door and Tyson's view of the pitch-black room. His hair was in disarray and one side of it was pressed flat against his head as if he had been sleeping for some time. He was dressed in a simple gray shirt and black sweat pants. The room behind him had a lingering odor, which caused Tyson's nose to wrinkle in his distaste for the smell.
But what caught Tyson's by surprise was Kai's face. His lips where cracked and the corners of his mouth were bright red, as if he had been burned by something. His eyes were rather dull and in them it looked like he had popped a few blood vessels. He had heavy bags set under his eyes. Basically the phoenix looked like a wreck.
"What do you want Tyson?" Kai croaked through his dry throat. Tyson didn't know what to say, caught in the shock of what he saw. "Listen, I'm feeling a bit under the weather. Could you make this quick?"
"I can see that. I was just wondering…err I came over to see if you would want to come over to my room and celebrate New Years Eve with Hilary and me. Rei and Max are over as well. But if you don't feel well that is understandable," he managed to reply, disappointment lingering in his tone.
"Thanks for the invitation Tyson, but I'll have to pass…"
"I see you got your present… I hope you liked it."
"Oh, yeah… I did… thanks." Kai seemed to be in a daze.
"Well, I'll let you get back to sleep. If you need anything just let me know! I'll b happy to help!"
"Thanks…" With that Kai shut the door. Tyson cringed at the sight he had just witnessed.
Wow, that explains why he hasn't been around lately. I probably always caught him when he was sleeping or in the bathroom. Poor Kai. He must have caught something when I ran into him during my shopping spree. I told him to put on that damned pair of gloves! I would if he really liked the present. He didn't seem really enthusiastic about it when I asked, especially since it as his first present…
-I don't care what you want
I just want mine
I don't care what you want
I just want mine
Shut up
Smart little bitch
I don't need lies
I don't care what you want
I just want mine
Get up
Force it to fit
Confined inside
My dead eyes-
Kai had ignored all the knocks on his door and let the answering machines on both the room phone and his cell phone pick up any calls he was receiving. The only time he did answer or return a call was when it came as a call from the hospital, his doctor, or Tala. He knew if he didn't reply to the red head, the Russian would think the worst and assume Kai to be dead.
He couldn't bring himself to get out of his bed for much. Even though he had been going to his sessions for about a month, Kai could feel the affects of those sessions draining him. Kai had been in top physical shape prior, but the toll that he had on his lung and now the rest of his body made him frail.
His doctor had informed him that he was going to be away during the last week of December and the first two weeks into January, so he gave Kai a special container that was fused with a needle the doctor injected into Kai's blood stream. This container held a supplement to chemotherapy drugs. While the doctor was gone, Kai had been instructed to turn on the miniature machine once a day, everyday for twenty minutes, no more, no less.
The only incentive Kai held was the same hope that he'd be cured quicker. But with each day, Kai felt growing more and more ill from this chemo treatment. His nausea became more frequent and he barely could make it to the toilet or the sink anymore. Kai could feel himself deteriorate from the inside out. His nausea medication had stopped helping and Kai was seldom taking it anymore.
Stumbling back into his bed and pulling up the cover to his nose, Kai's eyes wandered over to the bookshelf hanging on the wall. Aside of a mixture of both Tala and Kai's college books was a newly placed ornament. A red, orange, and gold colored glass figurine of a phoenix rising out of its ashes in its vibrate colors now rested on the shelf. Its gracefully twisted body and wide wingspan with such fine detail had captivated Kai when he had first discovered the present outside of his dorm room. Christmas had escaped Kai's mind during his personal chemo sessions, but when Kai opened the card resting in the parted beak of the phoenix, a mixture of foreign feelings flooded in his mind.
"Dear Kai,
I can't express how grateful I am to know someone like you. You've always been there since we first met down at the river when you headed the Blade Sharks. You never were one for holding a conversation at any means of length, but you didn't need to, because just your presence was enough. You always did try and keep my head out of the clouds, and you still do. I was shocked when you told me you don't get Christmas presents, so I hope this one will be the start of a new beginning. When I saw it I immediately thought of you and Dranzer. Merry Christmas Kai and have a Happy New Year.
-Tyson."
The letter was still resting on the desk where he had left it since it's opening. He didn't know how he felt or could explain the foreign emotions running through him, but he preferred those feeling that the ones that he had currently been over run with.
Sighing, Kai shifted his weight away from leaning on his "Chemo-in-a-box" hooked onto the sweat pants on his left hip. Closing his eyes Kai could only imagine what fun Tyson was having with his former teammates and Hilary.
The room was probably trashed ten fold that what it was when Kai had seen it over a week ago. Food would most likely be scattered on various locations of the room, and the four would be reminiscing about the past, bringing up long forgotten memories about tournaments, battles, and old friends. Talks about the future were probably wedged into the laughter. At the stroke of midnight, hidden silly string containers will be revealed, covering the four friends in assorted color in their child's play.
The bluenette couldn't help but feel the emptiness hit him again; it was getting harder and harder to feel any glimpse of hope of his survival. It was time to start to distance himself from everyone, including Tala, because he was never going to be able to say good-bye to anyone...