Whew! It's the weekend! Means I have a few days to recover in while I wait for my Chemistry exam to come and murder me! I swear, I know NOTHING I'm supposed to... One of my friends is getting private tutoring (her parents can afford it!) and she says we haven't been taught half of the syllabus...ah well. I was always going to fail chemistry... Thank you all for your reviews, they cheered me up so much! Hugs for all of you!

Lil-inu: I don't know if it's all that great, but I -will- keep on posting!

BloodyShadows-D.A: I didn't think when I started that I would actually like KaiLee, but as I've been going through it, I've warmed to it. They're cute together!

Delores L: It's kind of ironic...I killed Rei off because I couldn't bear to have Lee and Kai together with Rei around, and I didn't want to make Kai cheat on Rei or anything...but after I said that to someone I started writing one where Kai -does- cheat on Rei...oh well...

Ellen: Cake! Cake's good. And it does suck for Lee, for a while, anyway...

Ice Spirit: Nah, I don't mind. I was going to change the summary and pairings when I posted the last chapter, but my brain just wouldn't work- I was frazzled off exams, and I just couldn't think. So I changed it when I posted this chapter! And with the whole KaiLee thing...yeah, I can see where you're coming from with that, but I still think they're cute. But then I'm a sucker for most yaoi, whatever the pairing!

Tenshi-Tara: Mariah makes an appearance in the next chapter. The White Tigers don't actually know that Lee's gay yet, they think he ran away because he was upset over Rei. They don't want him dead...yet. And I don't think I'll involve any one else with this...I like it as just Kai and Lee on their own!

Animeobsession: Heh, I think I'll use that 'setting on a washing machine' thing... Have a nice time brushing people!

Endoh Chiaki: Ah, well I think they'd probably all have changed a bit after what happened to Rei. Him and Lee were best friends, and it would affect him to see that friends sliced to death... And like I said before, they don't want Lee dead...yet.

MafiaNerd-Used to be jadestar123: Ooh, I -was- stressed. But I'm alright now, my Dad's been spoiling me all day, and I got to go chocolate shopping for my friend's birthday, so of course I didn't forget to buy myself something! And now I'm waiting to watch Dr. Who, which is on in about an hour, so my best friend can squeal down my ear about it...

Now, the chapter! Oh, and Lee speaks Russian at the beginning because I figure he'd have picked up a little, seeing as they're -in- Russia...

"Dobre vyecher, Kai." Said Lee, smiling as Kai came into the kitchen, where he was baking. Kai walked over and leaned on the worktop beside him, smiling slightly. "Good evening to you too. What are you making?"

"A cake."

"What kind of cake?"

"I don't know. I haven't looked through your cupboards properly yet. Do you have any chocolate powder, or vanilla essence?"

"I honestly have no idea. I don't cook very often. Well, I don't cook at all. I would be fat as a whale by now if I didn't have a good metabolism. After Rei..." Kai swallowed. "After Rei died, I just lived on microwave meals." Lee looked slightly shocked and turned, mixing bowl under one arm, spoon in hand.

"You don't know how to cook?" Kai blushed slightly and loosened his tie.

"I...know how to cook, I just...can't do it. I could bring several recipes to mind...but when I try to cook them, they just end up burnt." Lee suddenly held out the spoon and the bowl, and Kai looked at him strangely. "What?"

"I'm going to teach you to cook."

"Can't it wait? I spent all morning in a meeting with a boring old man, and the afternoon with his brother!"

"Cooking's relaxing." Kai looked doubtful, then took the bowl and spoon. "Stir it until there aren't any lumps left, I'm going cupboard hunting..." With no further comment, Lee hopped up onto the worktop and opened the first cupboard, while Kai wrestled with the cake mixture.

"Kai, would you rather have chocolate, ginger, or vanilla?" Lee hopped back down again, holding three little boxes of flavouring that Kai didn't remember ever buying. He put down the bowl and licked the spoon absently, considering it.

"Chocolate." Lee tossed one of the boxes onto the worktop and then climbed up again, replacing the others.

"Put about half of it in the bowl and stir it till it's all mixed in." Kai obeyed, while Lee watched him critically. After a minute or so, Lee made him stop and held out a cake tin. Kai poured in the mixture, then stood back. "Now what?"

"You put it in the oven and wait until it tells you it's done."

"Huh?"

"Well, when it smells right, you'll know it's done."

"You have a more sensitive nose than me." Protested Kai. Lee waved a hand carelessly.

"Just put it in the oven and stop fussing." As Kai gingerly slid the tin into the oven, Lee tidied up, sticking the pots in the sink. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the pot of chocolate flavouring and picked it up, getting up onto the top again and putting it back with the others. He turned to get down, and slipped on a smudge of butter on the worktop. Kai looked up in time to see Lee falling, and panicked, dashing over and catching Lee just as he was about to hit the floor.

The neko-jin looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks..." Kai nodded, but didn't let go; his hands were clasped around Lee's waist, and the neko-jin's was resting against his bent knee. "Kai?" Kai blinked, then leaned over and kissed Lee's cheek, then the other one, before moving down to his lips, showering the delicate curves with butterfly kisses. After a while he moved, pressing Lee to the floor and leaning over him on his hands and knees, trailing kisses up Lee's neck and jawline. Lee submitted to Kai's lips, moaning softly as Kai nipped and licked at his skin.

"Kai...oh God..." Kai lowered himself so that he was sitting on top of Lee, hands either side of the neko-jin's shoulders, chest to chest with the beautiful cat before him. It was strange, really- to Kai, Rei had always been a kitten, someone to be babied, but Lee was like a panther or a lion...forceful and powerful, dangerous and alluring... Lee was no kitten, he was a cat. Kai found himself appreciating the difference while feeling somehow as if he was betraying Rei.

After teasing Lee for a while longer, Kai locked lips with him again, and oh, it was as good as it had been before, if not better. Lee writhed beneath him and moaned, arms winding around Kai's back and crushing them together, so tightly that Kai could feel the warmth of Lee's skin through his shirt, could feel the skittering beat of the neko-jin's heart as they delved deeper into each other.

When lack of air became a major issue, Kai broke away, cheeks flushed, panting. "Lee..." His fingers scrabbled with the buttons on Lee's shirt and tore it open, parting the green fabric to leave Lee's perfect chest on display. Lee in turn unbuttoned Kai's shirt, loosening his tie fully and hurling it away before reaching out and stroking Kai's skin. Kai gasped as Lee's fingers grazed over one of his nipples, and leaned forward again, recapturing the swollen lips that were just sitting there, begging to be nibbled, sucked and kissed.

Without either of them really realising it, they started rocking their bodies together, desperate to be closer, closer than close, to be one. Kai was about to suggest they continue upstairs, when Lee suddenly broke away from him, coughing. "The cake!" They struggled up, and after a few seconds confusion Lee pulled the cake out of the oven, wafting away the clouds of black smoke that rolled off it. When the smoke cleared, Kai started laughing. "I -told- you I always burn the things I cook!" Lee looked down at the blackened chunk of burnt cake and smiled, putting it beside the sink.

"I suppose I'll have to keep cooking for you until you stop burning things..." Kai nodded, eyes fixed on the entirely pleasant sight of Lee's bare chest. He reached over and pushed the open shirt back, removing it entirely and dropping it to the floor, shrugging off his own and winding an arm around Lee's waist, looking down at the slightly shorter neko-jin with lust burning in his eyes. "Lee..." Lee swallowed nervously.

"Kai...I've never actually...not with another man...well...not with anyone..."

"It's okay...I'll be gentle..." Lee looked deep into Kai's eyes, then leaned over, whispering.

"Make love to me, Kai..." Kai shuddered, by that point too absorbed in how much he wanted to be inside Lee to suggest they went upstairs. As he was about to relieve Lee of his trousers, he stopped suddenly. It was Lee's first time...they shouldn't be doing it on the kitchen floor if it was his first time...it wasn't right, somehow.

Kai grabbed Lee by the hands, kissing him as he led him up the stairs, all the time tugging Lee towards his bedroom, back to the crimson sheets they'd lain on together that morning. The stairs and landing were swathed in darkness, but they failed to notice that as they collapsed into Kai's bedroom and onto the bed, bodies desperately seeking friction. Kai reached over and switched out the light, wondering how loudly he could get Lee to moan before the night was out...

Kai awoke the next morning feeling intensely guilty. Lee was asleep beside him, chest rising and falling slowly as he breathed. He was all curled up, into a sort of oval. He was... Kai looked away quickly. He was lying the same way as Rei had used to...when he'd still been alive. Not for the first time, Kai wondered if he was in some way replacing Rei with Lee. It felt that way, sometimes- Lee would do something or say something that would remind him of Rei, and he would start to question himself. He had been doing so even before they had...

Kai looked down at Lee and smiled. Replacement or not, the night they'd spent together had been...amazing. The way Lee had touched him...the way Lee had reacted to his touches...the sheer wondrousness of being inside that lithe, feline body...of hearing Lee call his name, begging for more...

As Kai was reliving the night before, Lee woke up and, feeling strong arms wrapped around him, started to purr softly. Rei had purred, only...Lee seemed to have a deeper, louder purr than Rei had ever had. But then... Kai felt tears sting his eyes. Rei had been so delicate and gentle...he hadn't deserved what had happened to him...no-one deserved that kind of punishment...

As if sensing Kai's distress, Lee turned. "Kai? Are you okay?"

"No..." Kai started to cry, and Lee folded his arms around him.

"What's the matter?"

"I was just...remembering..."

"I'm sorry."

"Hm?"

"Well...it's because I'm here, isn't it? I remind you of him." Kai nodded, burying his face in the crook of Lee's neck. "I've been thinking...maybe it's time I moved out of here. I was thinking of going to America, or England maybe..."

"No...I don't want you to go..."

"But...if all I'm ever going to do is remind you about Rei...well...it wouldn't be right."

"It's not reminding, it's comparing! I keep comparing you to Rei and hating myself because sometimes I feel like I'm using you to replace him and sometimes I think I love you more than I loved him! I'm confused! I don't know what I feel any more!" Kai cried, clinging to Lee tightly, fingers digging into Lee's skin.

"Kai...stop crying...we've all...changed a lot since they killed him. I know I have. Mariah has, Kevin has, even Gary has. You were in love with him, it's only natural that you can't pin down your feelings any more...I find it hard too...but I understand how you feel...maybe more than you understand it yourself." Lee sniffed. "You didn't have to watch him sit there in that cage, slowly driving himself mad...waiting to die...and there was nothing any of us could do...they kept calling him 'it' and 'heathen', and saying that preferring men was disgusting...and that did nothing for me at all, considering that at that point I was starting to question myself.

"I got quieter...I suppose that hasn't all worn off...I don't think I'll ever be the person I used to be. You'll never be the person you used to be, and you'll never have all the things you had back then... You've done so much for me, Kai...if you want me to do anything for you then I'll do it. If you want me to stay, I'll stay, but if I'm only going to hurt you..."

"Can I think about it? I can't...it's all messed up inside my head..." Lee nodded, leaned over and kissed Kai softly, then left the room.

That night, Kai had a dream. He was standing in the square where Rei had died, only this time it was him who was tied up, him who was lashed between the posts. Rei appeared in front of him, smiling. "Hello, Kai."

"Rei..."

"I...begged the people up there to give me a few minutes. You're dreaming right now, but I'm not a dream, sort of. I...just wanted you to know that you're not replacing me with Lee. You know it yourself, really. That's why you've been comparing, because you want to find differences, only you keep finding similarities, don't you?"

Kai nodded dumbly. "But we're so different... You need to see that, Kai. Sure, we're both neko-jin, and we have the same hair colour, and we both purr, but those are tiny things. Look at Lee's personality- it's a million miles away from mine. And I don't mind you being together, I know you've been worried about what I'd think of you and Lee going out, and I don't mind!

"I know I'm biased in his favour, but Lee will never let you down. He's never going to cheat on you, or treat you badly, or unfairly. If you're still not sure, think about how you felt last night. If you were replacing me with him, it would have been my name you were calling, not his." Kai stared at him, and he sighed. "Kai, haven't you realised yet? You've fallen in love with him. And, if you're still as totally dense as you used to be, he loves you too. That's why he'd leave to stop you from hurting when really he has no idea what he could do or where he could go! Stop worrying and do what your heart tells you!"

"But...you..."

"I want you to be happy. I want you all to be happy, you, Lee, Mariah, Kevin, Gary...and if you and Lee being together makes you both happy, then I don't care! Just don't let Lee go home, ever again. Don't let him leave you because he'd end up back there, it's the only place he knows, and if he went back, they'd find out...do you want to see Lee slashed to death as well?" Kai shook his head. "If he feels the need to tell them...make him send a letter. Please...don't let them do to him what they did to me..." Kai shook his head and Rei came closer, hugging him before fading away entirely.

Lee awoke in the middle of the night, startled when a cold hand grasped his waist. He turned, blinking sleepily and giving a soft mew of protest at being woken up so suddenly.

"Shh, go back to sleep, Lee..."

"Oh...Kai...s'only you..." With a purr of contentment, Lee nuzzled his way into Kai's arms and went back to sleep. Kai watched him for a few minutes, then closed his eyes, resting his head against Lee's.

Next Chapter: Kai and Lee talk, and Mariah comes to visit...

R&R please!