Shrine To Rei Kon
Summary: Rei is driven by curiosity when he finds that Kai is hiding something from him. It's bugging him so much that he searches Mr Hiwatari's room. Finding more than he had bargained for, it is here the fun begins… R&R. Yaoi KaRe.
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade – if I did, would I be writing this?
Rei sighed. The sigh was not one of boredom, or even annoyance. He sighed in happiness and relief. It had been a while since he had been truly alone, in his own company. It made him calm, peaceful, knowing that there was nothing to disturb him here but for the plonking sound of the rain hitting the pavement outside. He held his blade to his eyes. A white tiger glared back at him from the bit chip, curling its lips into a wide and challenging snarl.
The neko-jin looked around, from the opposite end of the long, wooden bench he was perched upon, to the large, shiny, and empty dish in the centre of the floor. He stared at it now. Something that could be filled with a flurry of dust and rage sometimes, was at the moment, still and silent as the rest of the room. His eyes skimmed the dish, watching how the light reflected from its shiny, pale blue surface.
"What are you doing?" The strong, rich, male voice echoed throughout the room. Rei's heart sank. This was supposed to be his time. For him. He let his arms swing at his side, and he shot a response at the newcomer.
"Thinking."
"Fair enough." The boy walked over to the dish Rei had been studying only moments before, and Rei thought he caught a glimpse of a smile. He had always loved beyblading. He battled fiercely, and hardly ever lost.
After a moment, Rei leant back and looked up fully. Now the boy was properly in his field of vision, and he could see blue hair covering crimson eyes, and a white scarf, still in the lack of breeze inside the room. Rei spoke again.
"I must ask this. Why is it you wanted to know?"
The boy hesitated, before facing Rei. "It's rare to see you alone these days, Rei…is it a crime to be curious?" he asked.
Rei stood, smiling. "No…no more than it is a crime to think by yourself, Kai."
Kai smiled too, briefly. Then he turned back to the dish and stepped into it. Rei expected him to slip, but he held his balance, walking smoothly into the centre of the dish and stopping there.
There was near silence in the next few moments, broken only by the still steady falling rain outside the window. Both boys listened to it sloshing down onto the cement footpath.
Rei's voice pierced the perfect quiet in the room, causing Kai's head to turn sharply at the sound of his own name. "So, Kai Hiwatari. What were you doing?"
Kai kept the same expression as he replied, "I was thinking too."
"What about, then?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"I was thinking about thinking. There. And you?"
"Hn." Kai turned swiftly and headed towards the open door.
"Hey!" Rei rushed over and grabbed Kai by the arm, stopping him. "I asked you a question."
Kai shrugged Rei off, unwilling to speak with him any longer. But Rei would not give up. In one sweeping motion, he ducked around Kai and pressed his hands onto the older boy's shoulders, stopping him from walking any further.
Kai sighed. This was a sigh of annoyance. "Why do you want to know?" he asked irritably, as Rei held fast to his shoulders, a look of pure determination on his face.
"Is it a crime to be curious?" he grinned, then turned and walked onwards down the hallway to the lounge room.
He has changed his game plan? Thought Kai, watching Rei go. Well, privacy is privacy, and everyone has rights. I have the right to remain silent.
Rei smiled to himself. Kai would eventually talk, he knew. All there was to do was wait. But…what had been on his mind then? Beyblading? Takao? A girl? Rei almost giggled at the thought. Kai didn't seem the type to be secretly crushing over someone. That couldn't be it, he thought as he entered the lounge. Takao, Kyoujyu and Max were pointing and giggling childishly at something on Dizzy's screen. Rei rolled his eyes and sank into an armchair. He didn't even want to know what they were looking at.
Takao, noticing Rei, began to speak. "Hey Rei, look a –" he was cut off abruptly when a hand clamped itself tightly over his mouth. The hand belonged to Max, who said, "Shush, Taka! Don't go telling Rei, now!"
Rei grinned. "That's okay. I wasn't exactly planning on looking."
Takao grumbled incoherently for a while, then Max cried out in disgust, and quickly drew his hand away. "No licking!" he exclaimed, while Kyoujyu just laughed.
"Why can't Rei know?" Takao demanded.
"Because it's nothing he needs to know yet," Max replied.
"Aw, c'mon. Tell him, Kyou!"
The brown-haired boy's eyes flickered from the laptop, to Rei, to Max and Takao, and back to the computer screen. "Maybe…I don't know…it's just funny…" The three boys burst into giggles again.
Rei was a little irritated. He wanted to know what they were laughing at, sure, but right now his mind was on Kai. Not Kai specifically, but what Kai was hiding from him. Curiosity overwhelmed him, and he crept out of the lounge. He was headed for Kai's bedroom.
Rei's hand lingered on the knob. He swallowed, and decided to knock first in case Kai was inside. Receiving no answer to the tapping of his knuckles on the hard wooden surface, Rei reached again for the door handle. He opened the door silently and went inside, shutting it again behind him.
Everything was, not surprisingly, in perfect order. A lamp sat, lifeless on a bedside table with three drawers. Rei searched these first, careful to put everything back where he had found it. Seeing nothing of interest, he searched the closet. Nothing there either. He sighed, shutting the closet doors, and looked underneath the bed. He didn't expect to see much there either, of course, and he didn't.
After a few more minutes of searching, Rei was about to give up. But suddenly he just got this feeling that there was something there, in that room, that he was missing. Driven by pure instinct and curiosity, Rei returned to the closet. He separated two jackets, and saw exactly what he had been looking for.
The outlines of a doorway.
Satisfied with this new discovery, Rei stepped backwards and closed the closet doors, then retreated to the safety of his own bedroom. He would return tomorrow.
HA! So…you like? Read and review please! Flames accepted, but controlled flames please – I don't want my house to burn down. Thanks!