Title: Visiting Day
Summary: It's visiting day at the abbey. Who will come and who won't? A Kai – Tala friendship-story. (Part 1 of 3)
Setting: This story takes place in the early days of the abbey. I see Kai being around 8 years old, and Tala somewhere near ten.
Rating/Warnings: light T for some violence
Disclaimer: I really am infringing on someone else copyright, but I mean it in the best possible way.
Author's notes: I feel really insecure about this fic. First of all this is not betaed and everyone, who is reading 'When morning comes at night' knows how important it is for me to have someone to proofread everything I write, but I don't think I would have the courage to post this, if I had to wait any longer.
And secondly this story is somehow really important to me, but I'm not sure if anyone else will like it, cause there won't be any slash, romance or descriptive violence, but I promise there will be plot, some drama and even some psychological aspects. So if this doesn't put you of, then please read this fic and leave a comment.
1. Chapter – The Downs of Visiting Day
"There you are! What are you doing here?"
Kai was breathing hard. He had searched Tala for a good thirty minutes now. And searching for someone in the big building of the abbey wasn't an easy task.
Kai brushed away a strand of hair, which seemed to always hang in front of his eyes when he wanted to look around like he did now. He couldn't remember being in this part of the abbey before, which wasn't really surprising, because early in the two months he had stayed here he had learned that wandering around was forbidden and would be consequently punished. Kai never forget that rule!
He turned his eyes back to Tala, who still hadn't moved away from his place on the big stony windowsill. The red-haired boy had been missing since morning. Normally missing only a few minutes was already reason enough for Boris to send out a search-party, but luckily for the boys today was visiting day. The day where all parents came to examine how well their children were doing, and also the day where Boris always tried to make a good impression. And he knew having guards running around everywhere didn't make a good impression.
"Hey Tala, what are you looking at?" Kai went over to the slightly taller boy and carefully prodded his leg.
"Just come up here and look for yourself if you want to know." Came the monotonous reply. Sometimes Kai didn't know why he liked the other boy. Perhaps it was, because he adored how the older teen got along here. Tala never seemed to get into any trouble, yet he lived by his own rules. And of course no one else had tried to befriend since he was sent here two months ago.
Kai reached his hands out to push himself up on the sill, only then realizing how high it was. Putting a bit pressure on his left wrist, he happily acknowledged, that his wrist didn't hurt anymore, after he had sprained it three weeks ago at training. Next he jumped a bit, pushing himself up, while moving his feet underneath his body on the windowsill.
Tala pressed his index-finger against the dirty window. "See?"
The half-Japanese boy looked out. From where they sat, they had a good view on the front gate. In the front yard people disported. Most of them were parents saying goodbye to their children, but there were also some men. The kids living here knew this male mostly as guards, but today they acted as the abbey's educationalists, confirming the worried mothers that their sons were in good care.
"What's so special about it? It's almost seven, the adults have to leave."
Tala shoved over a folded piece of paper. "Read this." He instructed.
Kai carefully smoothed the crumpled paper. It obviously was a letter. Tala felt the smaller boy's nervous eyes on him.
"What's up?"
Kai looked down at his hands, muttering something barely audible. "I can't read this."
That got Tala's attention. He gasped. "You can't read?"
"No, no, no! I can read, but I don't know this letters."
"They're kyrillic. How comes you can speak russian without accent, but not read it?" Tala was curious now, much to Kai's dismay. He felt embarassed and even more inferior than usual towards the older boy.
"I went to school in Japan, so that's how I write and I learned Romance writing in English class. My grandfather taught me how to speak Russian, but not how to write."
"Stupid! You live in a country, where you can't even read a menu."
"Yeah, well it's not like they have menus in here." Kai countered.
Instead of giving another remark Tala started laughing. Kai smiled slightly, he had rarely anyone in the abbey heard or seen who laughed and especially his older roommate seemed to be somewhat stoic.
"Okay, I'll tell you what stands in it." Tala grabbed the letter back and folded it carefully. "It's from my mother. She promises me, that she'll come. She even saved money for it."
"So?" That got Kai interested. In the last eight weeks, the two boys had shared a room, Tala had never mentioned his family at all.
Tala shrugged sadly. "She isn't here yet and they will close the gates soon."
"Perhaps she forgot, that it was today?" That earned Kai a death glare.
"She's not stupid like you are."
"Hey, I'm not..." The black haired boy was just about to argue, when the red-haired one stopped him.
Tala put his hands up. "It's okay, don't start. Didn't you say something like, that we need to return?" Kai nodded eagerly, he wanted to get back, before Boris found out, that they had been gone the whole afternoon.
The two boys wandered in the endless corridors of the abbey, apart of their worry not too excited to return in a rush to their room.
Kai quietly observed his friend. Tala hadn't said anything at all since they had left the windowsill. The red-haired boy had never before talked about his mother, and Kai had always imagined, that the family didn't seem to be of much importance to his mate, but now he started to wonder.
It seemed to really drag Tala down, that his mother apparently hadn't held her promise. It almost was like he wanted her to visit.
"What if she comes to late?"
Tala had been deep in thought. When he heard the smaller boy talking, he looked up in confusion. "Who?"
"Now who is the stupid one?" Kai ducked a firm swat from his companion. "Your mother of course. What if she comes too late?"
"Simple, they won't let her in."
"Oh." Kai understood what it must feel like to wait for your mother and she doesn't come. "Perhaps she'll be here next time."
Tala was about to respond, when he heard a door open. The two friends had returned to the main corridors. Right now, they were walking through the floors on which the rooms of the older boys were located.
Normally the younger boys made a detour, just to avoid meeting them.
It was a principle in the abbey, that everyone showed their power. The guards and Boris did it everyday by keeping the boys in line, and the older boys transferred their methods by suppressing the younger boys.
Tala was well-known in the abbey, he got the younger boys to shut up by just glaring at them, he was able to order most boys of the same age around and even some of the older ones respected him.
Kai on the other hand was in a more difficult position. Just here was a few months he had already been able to put some fear in the few boys younger than him by following Tala's instructions (sometimes it was good having the red-head as a roommate).
But Kai immediately caught the eye of the older boys. The guards knew, that he was Voltaires grandson, and as the powerful man had much influence in the abbey's politics, the left Kai alone most of the time.
Of course as soon as the others realized this, the jealousy got the better of them and they had found themselves a new favorite victim.
So the creaking of the door and the voices, that were becoming louder and clearer were a bad sign. Tala pushed Kai urgently forward.
"We better hurry up."
Kai didn't really react, but kept his pace. Sometimes Tala couldn't understand his younger friend. Didn't Kai understand, that this situation could get dangerous if they were found?
Of course the red-haired boy somehow liked to look out for his younger roommate. It gave him a good feeling to sometimes do something, that normal people would consider good.
On the other hand in the abbey, there weren't normal people and forming an alliance with the enemy had made him the new enemy to the older boys too.
"They are coming Kai! Now come on and hurry up!" Kai finally seemed to react and started to speed up. Tala gave a sigh of relieve, he really wasn't in the mood for a brawl, he was far more interested in where his mother was right now.
Kai nearly ran now. He hated it to run away, it made him feel like a coward, but these boys never left him a chance. So better to run away now unhurt, than to have to answer Boris later what happened when he and Tala would return bruised and battered.
Just as the two friends wanted to turn around the corner, they heard the doors open behind them. The roommates slowed again, they wouldn't give their tormentors give the satisfaction of seeing them running away.
"Well look whose got lost. Kai, the guards best buddy and our former lackey Tala. If you are searching for the kids playroom, then you're wrong here." Snickers followed this statement.
Tala took a heavy breath and then turned around slowly, signaling Kai to do the same. Around seven meters away stood three boys. Jakov and two of his goons.
"Are you here for trouble?" Jakov asked bluntly while advancing slowly towards them, followed on every step by his two shadows.
"No, we don't want to fight. We were just passing through.", Kai answered politely, not noticing Tala's groan.
"Oh, you don't want to fight.", Jakov mocked them, "Then perhaps you should start running."
He hadn't even finished the sentence, before starting to launch in Kai's direction, the other two decided to go for Tala.
Tala braced himself, balling his fists he aimed for the first thing, that dared to come into his reach, which happened to be one gorilla's nose. The satisfaction he felt over seeing blood starting to run from his target was only short-lived, because the fist, that connected with his eye immediately brought him to the ground. And with that he was unprotected to the older boy's merciless kicks and fists.
Kai wasn't doing any better. He stood passively as Jakov jumped onto him, bringing them both on the floor.
With both of them on the ground there was nothing more they could do besides hoping for it to be over soon.
> > > > >
Tala pushed Kai in the small bathroom, which was attached to their tiny bedchamber. The smaller boy stumbled in and was barely able to get a hold on sink, preventing to fall flat on the hard floor. Kai leaned heavily on the porcelain utensil. He gathered all his power left and risked a look in the mirror.
He immediately wished he hadn't done so. Groaning Kai acknowledged all his visible injuries. His face was smeared with blood. Some of it had already started to dry and was slowly changing it's color from bright red to a dark brown nearly black hue. At the same time his lip, nose and eyebrow were still bleeding, pattering his face with different long and thick traces of liquid.
His face's not bleeding areas weren't looking much better. Both cheeks and his forehead were bruised and slowly swelling, and Kai could have sworn, that his chin was already twice it's normal size. Sighing Kai decided that it would be better to close his eyes again.
At hearing his friend's sigh Tala popped his one good eye open, the other were already swollen shut, and observed his roommate's battered form. Realizing that Kai had to be okay as long as he was still able to stand, Tala leaned against the closed door.
Nearly choking on the blood he swallowed Tala coughed two times, bringing some of the despised fluid back in his mouth.
The red-haired boy brought a finger up to his mouth, softly tracing along his upper jaw. Tala winced as he came along two loose teeth, one of them nearly falling out.
Deciding, that he wasn't too bad off, Tala finally found the motivation to move forward into the room. Finding some towels in a sporadic shelf behind the door, he went to the sink.
Tala pushed Kai gently a bit aside, so that he could reach the tap. He waited for the water to get warm and then held one of the towels under the spray.
Kai was aware of someone moving him to the side, but put it off to his dizziness. Only the feeling of the wet towel in his hand brought his mind back to reality.
"Wash your face.", came a grumbled command from beside him.
Kai glanced to his left. His friend was washing the blood of his own face. It didn't come off all at once, so that the red fluid smeared around even more. Kai hadn't realized how hurt Tala had been himself until now.
He started to bring the damp towel up to his face, but stopped midway at feeling a sharp pain in his left wrist. 'So it is now injured once again.', Kai thought ironicly.
Out of the corner of his eye Tala noticed his friend's wince while attempting to clean his face. Slapping himself mentally he remembered Jakov stamping on Kai's newly healed left wrist.
Tala looked in the mirror once more. Being satisfied, that the face he saw in his reflection was as clean as he could get it without rubbing on the wounds too much, he threw the towel on the floor and used another to carefully dry him off.
Kai was about rise the towel again to his face, this time with his other hand, when it was grabbed away from him. "Let me help you."
"I can clean myself.", Kai said embarrassed, moving away from Tala's approaching hand.
"No, you take this and try to bandage your wrist." Tala pushed a role of gauze in Kai's right hand and immediately started working on the smaller boy's face.
Seeing that it would be futile to oppose Kai obeyed and concentrated on his hand.
The bathroom was silent for some time, only the sound of cloth rubbing on skin and Tala's rapid breathing could be heard. Only before he was nearly finished Tala let his concentration move away a bit and studied the younger boy with a curious look.
"Why haven't you defended yourself properly?" Tala asked while gently rubbing some dried blood from Kai's temple.
The smaller boy looked up in astonishment. "What do you mean? I told them I didn't want to fight."
Tala put the towel down. "And why should that stop them?"
Kai looked a bit lost. For him it was just common sense that you listened to what the others wanted and tried to act according to that knowledge.
At home he always only had to say what he wanted or what not and everyone listened to that. Of course 99 percent of the time he was alone with the staff and his private tutors. On the other hand he had to admit, that when his grandfather came home he didn't dare to say anything.
But Voltaire, like Boris, was an adult. And didn't have the right to tell adults what to do (unless they were your employees).
But Jakov and the others were boys, just like him. They should all have the same status and work together like a team and that not only while beyblading.
"I don't know, it should just be enough."
Tala put his hands on Kai's slender shoulders and then spoke in a quiet but firm tone to him. "Listen Kai. Don't be that naive! You tell them what you don't like and they'll do it. Never tell anyone what you don't like or what you fear, they'll only abuse their knowledge. Do you understand?"
Kai looked down, his heart suddenly felt heavy in his chest. This was one of the first lessons he learned in the abbey. He nodded. He had understood.
So, what do you think? It's not finished. I have two more parts planned out. I could add them or just leave it here. Like stated above I'm feeling a bit insecure about this story. Please review.