Hoo boy, I got so many reviews! Thank you very much to everyone who did review, the replies are just a little way down the page. Ah well, so this is the second chapter, and Rei's pain becomes clear. This is going to be a very over-dramatic chapter, I'm telling you that now, probably to the point of being quite funny, but hey. Kai will act like a total idjit, and Rei won't be much better. But anyway, review replies:
darkangelintheshadows: All shall be revealed in this chapter- there was a good reason for Rei being so hurt!
Kiko cat: Yeah, Kai's an idjit. But I'll make him see the error of his ways!
skimmie: I'm glad you like it, here's the update!
Echo in the Dark: It's always cruel...or more correctly, -I'm- always cruel. I swear, one of these days I -will- write a fic where nothing horrible happens...
Ropponmatsu III: Gotta love 'em!
Kanilla: Head inflang...inflating...BANG! I have a leaver's prom tonight and I'll probably look like an idiot... Thank you very much for being so kind about what I write!
snowy leapord 101: I'm glad you're enjoying it, here's the update!
BloodyShadows: I couldn't not continue and leave it at that!
Little-Purple-Phoenix: It's very dramatic, and you'll probably think Kai's a total moron when you get to that bit...
shuchan: Um...no. No dry humping. Lots of angst, lots of over-the-top drama, but no dry humping.
Mei Kimari: I'm a very impatient person, and it annoys me to sit around waiting in between updates...
WolfDemonQueen: Well you don't have to wait any more, because here's the update!
animeobsession: Possibly, possibly (which means yes). But perhaps not in the way you would think...
CreativeChilde: A agree, stupid Kai. But he'll learn...
Ellen: Dundundun. Kai has seen the error of his ways, but will he be able to change? Will Rei ever forgive him? Sorry, I'm having a tv-show moment...
miriam906: Hee, thank'ee...
darksaphire: Mm, that was one part I did wonder about- basically Tala was saying that even if Kai wasn't going to finish it he (Tala) was, because of what Kai did to Rei.
Platinum Rei: Yeah, I liked making Rei get angry, it was really fun to write!
Misha: Well, I can see where you're coming from, but speaking from experience (my parents divorced, then my mum and stepdad divorced and I've been around to see both of them), I can truthfully say that people's attitudes and emotions can and do change that quickly. I know you would probably consider it OOC but when you think about the situation, there are only a few ways people can react, and usually they lean towards anger. I did think about putting more of Kai actually cheating in, but a lot of my stories start from one line and go on from there- in this case it was the 'tell me the truth' thing. There are more emotions in the second chapter, but in the first I was really trying to get into the anger...because believe me people get REALLY angry when they're breaking up...sometimes more angry than sad because they only get sad when everything really sinks in. I'm not saying you're wrong or anything, but I consider myself pretty well-versed on the subject and wrote it as I percieve it to be in real life.
PandaPjays: Depressing? Yeah, I suppose it was a bit. But it'll get better! I promise!
syuchang: Well here's another chapter...and then after this there's only one more! Shock horror!
And now...the chapter!
Rei woke slowly, blinking and looking around sleepily. He closed his eyes again and started drifting off to sleep. Before he fell totally asleep, he heard a door click, and footsteps. "Rei...please wake up...they said you were over it...please wake up..."
"Nnh?"
"Rei!"
Rei opened his eyes again and found himself looking up at Kai. There were tears in the older boy's eyes, and they were red-rimmed, probably from crying. "Mhh? What...what's going on...where am I?" He thought back, trying to remember what had happened before he'd fallen asleep. After a second, he glared up at Kai. "What are you doing here? Where's your precious Tala?" He spat. Kai shook his head.
"Rei...I finished with Tala the second after I watched them take you to the medical wing... You had a ruptured appendix, and then...you caught something. Some kind of superbug...you've been in a coma for the past month, so I had you moved here. It's a private hospital. I...I couldn't bear to see you die because of me..." He sniffed. "Rei...I'm sorry..." He sniffed again, then started to cry. "I know you think I'm too selfish to be really sorry but I am."
"And I suppose everyone else has forgiven you? Because you're -sorry-?" Kai shook his head.
"They hate me, every single one of them. I'm leaving as soon as you've recovered fully. But I needed to know...that you'd be okay. I couldn't leave you after what I did to you, and no-one else could afford to pay for the treatment you needed-"
"Am I supposed to be grateful or something?" Rei hissed. Kai's voice dropped to a whisper.
"No. I'm just grateful that you aren't dead. Because even though you hate me...I love you, Rei. I always did. Tala was just...nothing, compared to you. Oh, and I quit my job. I know I'm not fit to teach anyone after what I did. But I..." He looked away, tears starting to course down his cheeks. "If you don't want me to come anywhere near you any more, I won't. Just...say, if you want me to go. I'll understand..."
"Get out!" Kai nodded and stood up, walking to the door and laying his hand on the handle. He turned back to Rei for a second, eyes pleading for the neko-jin to believe him. "I'm sorry." Before Rei could hurl more abuse at him, he left, shutting the door behind himself quietly.
Tyson looked up from watching a mock-battle between two of the children, hearing a ringtone. After a second, he realised that it was coming from his pocket, and grabbed his cellphone, answering it quickly. "Hello?"
"Tyson?"
"Oh. Kai. What do you want?" There was a sigh from the other end of the phone.
"He's..." Kai's voice sounded choked, as if he were crying.
"Oh God...he's dead, isn't he? I swear, I'm never going to forgive you-" Kai interrupted Tyson's angry rant.
"He's just woken up...they said if he stays rested he'll...he'll be fine."
"Are you crying?"
"Yes." Kai replied, unashamedly.
"What the hell are -you- crying for?"
"You wouldn't understand, even if I told you. One of you can come up later on, but they've limited the number of visitors he can have a day."
"Right. Well I'll come up tonight, and Max will tomorrow...and then Kenny the next day-"
"Kenny and Max can go together. He...doesn't want me to see him any more." Tyson heard a muffled sob from the other end of the line, and realised that Kai was practically in hysterics. He bit his lip, torn between being concerned and saying that Kai deserved it. In the end, concern won. "Are you okay?"
"No."
"I'm...free for the next two hours, if you want to talk..."
"You don't want to talk to me. You hate me, just like everyone else..."
"I don't -hate- you-"
"Yes you do. But you can never hope to hate me as much as I hate myself."
Kai rang off, leaving Tyson feeling very uncomfortable. After phoning Max to tell him to go and see Rei later for him, he set off to find Kai.
Forty minutes later, he was in the lobby of the hotel where he knew Kai was staying. He flashed the receptionist a charming smile and asked for Mr. Hiwatari's room number. The cheerful blonde smiled. "You've only just missed him, actually! Well, he's in room number 673, but it can get quite confusing up there, so if you get lost just ask the staff, or buzz if there's no-one around!" Tyson nodded and thanked her, then set off across the richly decorated room to the lifts, headed for the sixth floor.
When he got there, he found that the receptionist had been right- the whole floor was like a maze, and the rooms seemed to be in no fixed order. After asking three cleaners and a passing guest, he found Kai's room, knocking softly. "Yes?"
"Uh...hey Kai. It's me. Tyson."
Come in, if you want." Tyson took the half-hearted invitation and opened the door, walking into a room that was decorated all over with blue silk and velvet. Kai was sitting at an ornate desk, writing something. There was a bottle standing on the desk next to him and Tyson would have had to be blind to not be able to see the skull and crossbones on it. Kai, without turning, seemed to sense where Tyson's gaze was settled. "Water mixed with strychnine crystals."
"Strychnine?"
"It's toxic. It's actually a kind of verminicide...made to kill rats, so it's entirely fitting, don't you think? I bought it off an environmental health officer. Twenty thousand pounds sterling for death. It's a very high price, don't you think?"
"Kai, you can't be serious..."
"No, really, that was how much I had to give him. But everyone's bribable, in the end..."
"No, I meant you can't be serious about drinking that stuff!"
"I am entirely serious. Before I came here I saw my solicitor, and gave him the details of my will, and I'm going to finish writing this suicide note and then I'm going to drink that and die in helpless agony. You can stay and watch, if you want."
"Kai, be reasonable!"
"I'm past reasonable, Tyson. He hates me. And I know...that it's all my fault that he hates me. And everyone else hates me as well. I was so happy when he woke up and they said he was okay...they assured me that he'd live now, so...what's the point in living? I think I secretly hoped...that he'd be able to forgive me...but..." Kai said quietly, voice cracking. "That was a stupid thing to hope. You know, I never hated you half as much as I made out I did, Tyson. That's in the letter, but you might as well know now."
"Kai, look, no-one hates you." Tyson walked over, but Kai stretched out his hand, closing it around the neck of the bottle and lifting it, other hand still working away with the pen. "Kai, what's Rei going to think after you do this? He'll think it's his fault!"
"Why do you think I'm writing this?"
"You know what he's like, though- he'll blame himself!"
Kai wavered for a second, then shrugged. "He'll get over it. Everyone'll be all too willing to tell him I was a heartless psycho anyway. He won't blame himself, he'll just think even worse of me than he already does."
"And you want that?"
"Tyson, you don't understand. I can't live with myself any more. Knowing that what happened to him was my fault...knowing that he hates me... All I wanted was to know that he was going to be okay. Well now I know, and there's nothing worth living for any more. What have I got to look forward to? Living here, where no-one can stand to look at me because they hate me? A life on my own in a mansion in Russia? Either way it's a life that I can't live, Tyson. And I'm too weak to start over somewhere else on my own.
"You all think I'm so strong, but I'm weak. Pathetically, hopelessly weak. The only reason I'm not holding a gun to my head is because I know I'd be too weak to pull the trigger..." Kai scribbled something, and laid down the pen. "There. Done. It's a bit scruffy towards the end, and I've cried on it a bit, but-" Tyson's phone went off in his pocket and he grabbed it, answering quickly.
"Hello? Yeah. Yeah, he's here. What? Well...okay..." He held the phone out to Kai, who took it dubiously.
"Hello?"
"Kai!" Kai swallowed.
"...Rei...I..."
"I didn't mean it! Come back!"
"But I..."
"Come back! Please!"
"But I thought..."
"I was talking to Max...and I...I want you to come back, Kai! I want to talk to you!"
"I'll come as soon as I can..." Kai rang off, hurled the phone back to Tyson and threw the room keys at him as well. "Lock the door after you leave." With that, he ran.
"Everyone's been pretty harsh to him, but I think...he really is sorry. Sometimes he would just sit in here and cry. He really...he was really upset that you might die. And...when he didn't think anyone was around, he'd tell you how sorry he was, how much he loved you, how much he wanted you to get better, and...how much he hated himself. He ditched Tala the day you two argued, and he...he's been so distant since." Max bit his lip. "I heard him saying something about committing suicide when you were better the other day."
"He betrayed me and he nearly killed me, and you expect me to forgive him?"
"He didn't nearly kill you, Rei. Your appendix was already on the verge of rupturing, he just set it off. Anything could have, you could have sat down and it would have burst. And it isn't his fault that you caught something. He did everything he could for you, Rei, and he didn't expect any praise in return."
Rei looked down at the too-white bedspread, Kai's earlier words replaying in his head. 'I'm just grateful that you aren't dead. Because even though you hate me...I love you'. "I want to talk to him." He said abruptly.
"Well, Tyson said he was going to see him..." Max got out his mobile and called Tyson.
"Hello?"
"Hey Tyson. Did you find Kai?"
"Yeah."
"Is he around?"
"Yeah, he's here."
"Rei wants to talk to him."
"What? Well...okay..." Tyson sounded slightly puzzled, but Max wasn't really concerned about that at that point.
He handed the phone to Rei, who bit his lip nervously as Tyson handed the other phone to Kai. "Hello?" Kai's voice sounded rough and emotional, and Rei felt a pang of guilt. He tried to formulate what he wanted to say, but ended up just blurting out Kai's name.
"Kai!"
"...Rei...I..."
"I didn't mean it! Come back!" Begged, Rei, hearing the obvious hurt in Kai's voice.
"But I..."
"Come back! Please!"
"But I thought..."
"I was talking to Max...and I...I want you to come back, Kai! I want to talk to you!"
"I'll come as soon as I can..."
Rei handed the phone back to Max, finding that he was shaking slightly. "He's coming." Max smiled gently.
"I'll go then. And don't say things you don't mean this time."
Hmm...I think this chapter needs a little bit of explaining. Rei's opinions swing so much because not only is he emotional, but he's pumped full of drugs anyway. And Kai does what he does because...it's a bit harsh, going and seeing someone every day for a month only for them to wake up and say they hate you.
Next chapter: Is the last chapter. This is quite a short fic compared to some of my others, but hey. Anyway, Kai and Rei talk, and Tyson is a weirdo.
R&R please!