Last chapter! I'm sorry this is so late, but the new mini-computer which was making my chapters longer, was also the same one to DELETE ALL MY DOCUMENTS FOR NO REASON! So this is the second version of the last chapter, as the first is stuck somewhere.

Also, yesterday I bought the best manga I've read in a very long time, and I feel it's my duty to introduce other people to it. It's a tokyopop one called Off Beat. To check it out, go to tokyopop dot com and look for Off Beat in the books menu!

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sunlightcascaded in through the open curtains, and draped over the bed in which me and Tala lay in silence. I could tell he was awake- and that he knew I was too- but neither of us moved or broke the silence.

We were afraid of what we'd done. I kind of knew it was going to happen one day- as we're the only two homosexuals among us. However, I still felt guilty. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I wasn't sure how to get rid of it.

Kai still had his claws in me. Claws which he had poisoned...

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sunday- X-DAY

"Are you feeling better?" Tala asked as I walked out of the toilet. I ran my hand over my mouth in an attempt to dispose of any visible vomit. "You've been sick?"

I stood a few paces in front of Tala, who was sitting down eating breakfast. A few newly heated pop tarts where on a plate at my seat, which Tala had made like normal. But this didn't feel normal at all.

"Rei? Are you ill? I can get pills..."

"I'm fine." I lied. Kai's comment a few days ago seemed to make more and more sense.

"You're not! Is it because of what I've done? I'm sorry, I was selfish to do that so soon..."

Tala was actually right. My thighs felt sticky and unpleasant, and my whole body felt invaded. It was kinda painful to walk, and this feeling alone kept making me throw up. I suddenly felt guilty for ever sleeping with a girl if this is what they too felt like in the morning.

"I've just got a hang over, Tala. Stop worrying about me. I'm fine." I sat down and ate my pop tarts. Tala smiled at me across the table.

"Tonight, we'll be going to bed in Tokyo, in our own flat. No world championships. No school. No rules." He took his plates over to the sink. "We'll be free, Rei."

I took a sip of the milk Tala hadn't picked up, and closed my eyes.

I was going to be free. No more razor-eyes or false-friends. Just me and Tala and the world.

The world was going to be just for us now.

"I need to go and say goodbye to my team and pick-up stuff from our flat." Tala flung his jacket over him. "I'll be a few hours maximum."

"I guess I'll go say bye to Kai then..."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Max opened the door slowly, but once he saw it was me, flung his arms around me.

"Hey everyone! Rei's come back!" Max shouted. Tyson, Kenny and Hilary ran out of the living room to greet me.

"Yo, Rei! Great to have you back, man!" Tyson yelled happily. Max let go, allowing Tyson to pat me on the shoulder warmly.

"I'm not coming back," I said coldly. "I just want to talk to Kai."

"Yo, Kai! Get your arse down here." Tyson turned back to me and added. "Do you want us to leave?" He gave me a different look from Hilary, Max and Kenny- who all looked puzzled. I suddenly remembered that Tyson had seen me pull Tala away from Hilary, and wondered weather he thought I was gay.

"That's all right. You're gonna hear about this sooner or later anyway, so it's better you hear it from my mouth first."

"Are you sure? Kai told me..." Tyson whispered.

My eyes widened for a brief moment, but then it was unfair of me to expect Kai to keep to himself forever. I just never considered that he'd tell any one.

"I'm not gonna to talk about that..." I said. Kai had begun to timidly walk down the stairs. "I'm saying goodbye."

Kai stopped walking when I said 'goodbye', and the others erupted into a loud murmur. I looked over all of them and meet eyes with Kai, who looked taken back.

"Goodbye?" Kai repeated. "Why? Where are you going?"

Max started to say something, only to be hit by Tyson. For the first time- I respected Tyson's intuition.

"I'm going to Tokyo."

"Why?" Hilary burst out.

"I'm going with Tala..."

"But why Tala? When did you two become such great friends?" Kai said, his voice getting louder. "He's making you throw your life away for a relationship that's only gonna last a few days!"

A lot calmer, Max asked, "But we're your friends too, right? Why don't you want to stay with us?"

"Tala's not my friend..."

"Then why are you gonna move with him?" Yelled Kenny.

"...Tala's my lover." I said. There was a pause- the only sound was the harsh in take of breath. Tyson looked down disappointedly, Hilary clasped her hands over her mouth, Max smiled for a while- and then started to laugh wildly, Kenny stood still with his mouth open, and Kai looked horrified.

"Since when? When did you start...sleeping...with him?" Kai muttered through the atmosphere. Max started laughing even more when Kai said this, so Tyson pushed everyone else out the door behind me.

"Since yesterday. I realized something at the party, and now we're together." I said, resenting Kai a great deal.

Kai didn't say anything back to that, so I turned to leave.

"No. Wait a minute. I need to know something before you go." He asked desperately. I didn't turn around, but stayed still so he knew I was listening.

"Why do you..." He cut himself off. "Are you really gay?"

"That's the big important question? I'm leaving..."

"No, it's not. I mean...you really don't just see me as a friend?"

"I told you I loved you, didn't I?" I snapped back, pissed off with his slowness.

"So, we couldn't ever be friends again?"

"For god sakes, Kai! No!" I yelled.

"Why not? I don't mind that you love me...I mean, it was weird at first, but now I'm kinda glad that a person like you fell in love with someone like me."
"What would you do if I was a girl?"

"Go out with you I guess."

"THEN WHY NOT NOW?" I shouted, turning back to look at him. "What difference does it make weather I'm a guy or a girl? I still love you so much! Are you saying that because I'm the same gender as you, my love isn't even worth considering?"

"I'm not gay, Rei."

"So fucking what? If you're pleased I love you and that you'd go out with me if I were a girl, what difference does being a boy make?" I noticed I was crying, which didn't seem to shock me anymore. "I don't expect to get fucked by you, if that's what you mean!"

"That's not what I mean..." Kai regained his control. "You're not trying to understand me."

"Neither are you!" I suddenly realized there was no hope, and begging like this wasn't fair on Tala. "Bye then."

Kai never said anything in reply- not that I'd waited anyway- so I quickly left, tears creeping down my face unwantedly. I met Kenny, Max , Hilary and Tyson outside, who all looked shocked that I was crying. Hilary flung herself onto me and started to sob into my shoulder.

"You don't have to go, Rei. Kai just doesn't understand what he's feeling." Tyson had never struck me as the type of person to except homosexuality so quickly, but I was so grateful that he did. "Please stay, or Kai's gonna sulk for months!"

"Tyson's right, Rei. Kai will never let us forget that we let you go!" Max mused for a while. "Hey, do you think Kai likes Rei? I mean he's been extra pissed off ever since Rei left."

"Don't go, Rei!" Hilary cried. "We don't care that you're gay, so why do you want to leave us behind?"

"You shouldn't ask questions you don't want to here the answers to." I pulled away from Hilary, who was still sobbing. "Goodbye."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Tala was waiting for me when I got back home. He'd packed all of my things up into a rucksack and suitcase, which waited by the side of the door. He had a large sports bag over one shoulder and his guitar over the over.

"Why are you bringing your guitar?" I asked picking up my things.

"Well, I thought that if we can't get jobs for a while, I could busk or something." Tala laughed and stood up. "I sold the bike."

"My god! We really must be going!"

Tala slipped his shoes on and we both left the flat. I looked back at the closed and battered door, and sighed. That flat had seen a lot of memories I'd like to forget, but also a large number of memories I wanted to last forever.

But whatever that flat meant to me, it would always be where I fell in love with Tala.

"Tala."

"What?"

"Kiss me."

"Any particular reason?"

"Yes," I said embracing him, letting my bags drop to the ground. "Because you can."

Tala locked his lips over mine and I pulled myself closer to him.

"You've got what you wanted then. You got your fairy tale ending." I smiled and picked up my bags again. "We pulled though all the hardships and the tests, and we both ended up with the guy."

"Now I have you, I'm not going to let anything spoil it for us." Tala said softly.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Kai! You have to go after him!" Yelled Tyson. "If you don't, you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

"Come on Kai! You said yourself that you love him!" Hilary said, who was on the floor begging.

"We don't care if you're gay!" Tyson pleaded.

"For the last time! I'm not gay! There's just something about Rei, there always has been..." Kai said defensively.

"Yo, that's called a chrush. Having a chrush on a guy makes you gay. Don't kid yourself, Kai." Max laughed.

"Shut up, Max! You're not helping!"

"Hey, back in America being gay is a good enough reason to kill somebody! I can't believe you two are actually telling Kai to be gay."

"You're an idiot Max!" Screamed Hilary. "If you fell in love with a girl, and then she had a sex change over night, are you saying that you would suddenly stop loving her?"

"I wouldn't know, I've never been in love!"

"Yeah, you know what! It shows!" Hilary sighed in an attempt to calm herself down. "Kai, what are you affraid of? You both love each other! Why on earth don't you want to be happy?"

"I'm not affraid, I'm just not giving in..."

"What?" Tyson yelled.

"Rei may have given in, so has Tala, but I won't. I'm not going to let these unatural feelings control me. I'm not going to let them take over. I shouldn't like another guy, Max is right, it's sick. I gave in once and nearly kissed him. I was so sickened that he loved me. Rei never even tryed to control himself, he wasn't even ashamed! He let his sick desires take over, and I'll be damned if I do the same!"

Tyson hit Kai about the same time Hilary slapped him.

"You arrogent bastard! You've been lying to Rei about wanting to be 'just' friends!" Screamed Hilary. "You're gonna be miserable for the rest of your life for some crappy Christian ideal? What is so evil about homosexuality?"

"It's sick and wrong," Max interjected.

"Shut the fuck up, Tate! And piss off!" Tyson shouted. "You and your homophobia can have a fucking parrade for all I care!"

"Oh, you wanna go outside?" Snapped Max.

"Stop fighting!" Kenny yelled from across the room. "We aren't getting anywhere like this!" He stood up and walked over to join the conversation. "At the end of the day, Rei has gone off with Tala rather than continuing to try and gain Kai's affections, which it turns out, he already had. If Rei still wanted to be with Kai, he would still be here." The whole room fell silent. "Rei isn't interested in you Kai, so that solves your problem. In a few hours he'll be in Tokyo and you'll never see him again." Kai swallowed hard. "If it wasn't for your 'ideals', Rei would still be here- maybe even going out with you! But you just had to pretend you felt nothing but friendship, and drive Rei away!" Kenny was actually shaking. "You deserve all the pain you're gonna feel which comes from his absence!"

"I'll go then." Kai bit back tears."You're right. You're all right. Well, not Max..."

"Kai, you won't make it now..." Kenny started.

"No. I know it's too late today." Kai smiled. "But there's always the holidays..."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The train flew along the tracks as Tala and I sat in our empty carrage. Rain fell softy onto the closed windows, and it was already dark outside.

Tala un-zipped his gutiar case and placed the gutiar across his lap.

"I haven't written anything new since we got together, so the only songs I know are sad." Tala confessed.

"I don't mind." I sighed. "I've just never heard you play- let alone sing!"

Tala smiled and said sorry again. I was actually slightly curious as to what Tala would have written.

"Maybe when I'm older and my heart has become bolder-

I'll capture your hand and take you to my tower,

I'll slip off your shirt and pull down your skirt,

And lay with you for ever."

I felt my eyes slowly close, and a smile curled onto my lips.

'Skirt'? He must have wrote this one with Bryan then...

"Maybe when I'm older and my heart has become bolder-

I won't need to hide and lie about how I feel,

I'll kiss your face and watch your grace,

Without being resented."

"We're both older now." Tala put the gutiar back and watched me sleep. "I'm taking you to my tower, and we're gonna lay there forever."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

THE END!

I know the real fariy tale ending would have been Rei and Kai getting together, but I wanted to keep things believable. This story has been quite important for me to write because I've worked a lot of things out in my head about some of the people I know, and people I no longer know.

I tried to keep to the charicters cultural background in this story, which is why most of them have a different opinion on being gay. Tyson, Hilary and Kenny all come from Japan, so they have grown up excepting it happens, (ie. yaoi manga/anime! lol). Rei is from China, where no body likes to talk about it, even if they know it's happening. Tala and Kai are both from Russia, where homosexuality was only made legal when communism fell, so not many Russians except it, and can be quite harsh to people that are. And most importantly, Max is from America, where peoples opinion changes from state to state, and from school to school- but Max brings in the most important aspect- the 'crappy Christian ideal'.

Anyway- I'm considering doing a sequel, in which Kai goes up to Toyko in his school holidays to visit Rei- and maybe even try to steal him back- so could you please let me know what you think about this?

But yeah, maybe I've even changed some opinions of your own? lol, doubt it- but I can hope. Thanks for reading and please lt me know what you think!