Thanks to: saber-kon, FORFIRITH-on-a-sugar-high, kat, adi, Ruriko Minamino, Devlinn Reiko-sama, TigerRain a.k.a Tara, Raku Ozzarian princess, Shaka Dragomir Nocturnus, crazy nek0-JIN, Platinum Rei, Sweet Tigress, BloodMistress, kai-cutie-angel, Zoe, dead yet a love sick puppy, Koneko no Rei, Yugi Lover, Keisan, Jirachi, IndigoDeath666, Raven Deathstar, KuronekoHikage, UlTiMaTe KaI LuVa, Shirohikari, Kodoku wolf, the tigris, songs make me cry, devilburns, Shayde Amelia Phoenix, wolf whirl, Enelya Aldarion, SoulSister, Tariki Rania, Killua Bakura, and o Bubbles o!
Crystal: I only have one explanation for no responses. Since all of you guys only have one, and the same question, I'm going to answer it with only one response! Ok? Ok! Now, unfortunately…Rei's cousin is…yeah, her. Many of you people might kill me for that, but yeah…although, it would be very nice to see Kai almost being drove to near insane with jealousy, right? LOL! Anyway, as a 'thank you' you guys get, Ice Popsicles! Oh, and how about some Mariah bashing? LOL! Now, on to the fic!
Disclaimer: If I owned Beyblade, then Mariah would be kicked out of the whole anime and Kai and Rei would be together, right? But, since none of that happened, then that would mean that I don't own Beyblade. –frowns--
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Breathe – Chapter 13: Rei's cousin
"Rei-Rei! IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"
Kai looked at his fianc's cousin; sure enough it was a girl, preferably the same age as Rei. She has freakishly pink hair that would stand out in the crowd, even in the dark. She's wearing a very pink dress, with pink frills and ribbons; her shoes are also pink, and heck EVERYTHING that she has is pink! Anyway, besides the obsession of pink, she has golden orbs of eyes very much like her cousin. Oh, and did I forget to mention that she's also a neko-jin, very much like her cousin?
"Uh…Mariah, nice to see you again…?" Max gave a nervous laugh, while trying to hide Rei so she wouldn't glomp on him. He gave a look towards Tala and Dizzi to help him hide Rei; both saw the look in his eyes and rushed to his side, trying to cover the unconscious Rei.
Mariah saw how uneasy and fidgety Max is and began to have her suspicions. Her golden eyes narrowed down into slits and walked right in front of Max. "Oh, it's you. Where is my Rei-Rei?" she asked while scanning her eyes from left to right, looking at the new faces she's never seen before.
From the other side of the room, stood Kenny, Bryan, Tyson and of course Kai; they were watching how Mariah treats Max like some kind of inhumane person. Bryan started to snarl silently, muttering how bitchy can this girl get and how she's such a two-faced bitch. Tyson was very surprised at the attitude of this, this Mariah person. At first, he thought that even though she was all obsessed at Rei, she'd be still nice and sweet at the same time. But no…instead, she's verbally harassing Max and treating him like dirt!
"Now, do you believe us how can she be all so…clingy?" asked Kenny, while watching the pink-haired freak interrogate poor Max with questions about Rei's whereabouts. Tyson just nodded silently, while Kai just gave them a look that he really agrees.
From his little "hiding corner", Rei stirred slightly, opening his eyes to check where he was. Blinking once, he noticed that there were at least 3 people trying to cover him from his left side, while four people are watching from the side. Confused by this, he stood up and tapped one from the shoulder. Unfortunately, Mariah, being the suspicious one right now, noticed a bunch of raven hair behind her dear, beloved cousin's friend and noticed that it was Rei!
"Oh Rei! There you are!" The pink-haired freak pushed Tala, Dizzi and Max to one side, and proceeded on giving Rei a death-hug. "Oh I've missed you so much! How come you don't visit me anymore? Write letters to me anymore? Don't you miss me like how I've missed you?"
Rei didn't even get the chance to ask what was happening when the pink furball zoomed pass by and giving him the death-hug attack. The raven-haired boy started to get pale with the lack of oxygen and tried to get help from his friends. Seeing his little plea for help, Kai, who was beginning to hate and loathe this girl started to pry Rei off from her.
Mariah noticed this and started to protest. "Hey! What are you doing? Can't you see that my cousin and I are having a special bond right now?" Bryan rolled his eyes while walking towards Rei and Kai. "Special bonding my foot…" he muttered, though unfortunately Mariah heard this and snarled at him.
"Oh wow, you're here too? I thought servants weren't supposed to come, but then again…how could I blame you? You're like a poor defenceless dog who needs his poor master anyway…" She gave a mocking laugh towards Bryan's way.
"Why you—," Bryan lunged forward to strangle Mariah, and before he could do some damage, Kenny and Max were refraining him to hurt the girl. "Bry! She's not worth it! Besides, you'll get into trouble with Lord Rai and Lady Leila!" Kenny whispered frantically into the older boy's ear. After hearing what Kenny said, Bryan reconsidered his options and despite the fact that he would to pummel the girl into the ground, he'll get punished for hurting the niece of the Lord and the Lady as a consequence.
Mariah saw this and gave everyone a haughty look, especially towards Kai. "Well? Aren't you going to answer me? I said what are y—"
"I know what you said the first time already," Kai gave her a cold glare making her shiver silently. "Seeing as you're suffocating your own cousin, I took this matter into my own hands. I can't let you hurt my own fiancé, especially right in front of my own eyes, you got that?"
Mariah looked at the pair of cold, deep crimson eyes with her surprised, bewildered ones. That is Rei's fiancé? A boy? She thought that Rei would marry a girl! This isn't making any sense to her…especially during now. No matter…however the circumstances maybe, she would make her beloved cousin's fianc's life a living hell, she would make sure of that. Meanwhile, Rei couldn't help but look flustered; Kai was actually being overprotective of him! 'We aren't even lovers…even though we're betrothed to each other,' he thought, blushing every now and then, beginning to get lost in his own little world…
"So, you're Rei-Rei's fiancé? You look more like a steward to me," Mariah gave Kai a threatening glare, saying: 'Back off, you don't deserve Rei, only I do!' Kai paid no attention whatsoever at her pathetic glares; instead he gave her a very much-welcomed insult.
"May I remind you, that you are standing right above of my very own castle, which is a part of the Hiwatari lands? If you don't remember, then listen here wench, you are very lucky to be Rei's cousin, or else you would have been locked up in the dungeon for insulting the heir of the Hiwatari kingdom!" With that, he grabbed Rei possessively by the waist and stormed off the room, leaving their surprised friends and an enraged cousin behind.
"Wow…you know, I can never imagine Kai being all the jealous type…don't you think?" asked Tyson, while Dizzi just started to squeal in delight since that Kai's jealousy makes him show more affection towards Rei in public.
Unbeknownst to them, they had forgotten that Mariah was still in the room looking so raged and humiliated. She walked over to where Tala and the others are, and demanded where did her cousin's barbaric fiancé take him. "Where did he take my Rei?" she crossed her arms, waiting impatiently, tapping her right foot in an off-key beat.
"Even if we know, we wouldn't tell you," Tala muttered darkly, leaving the room with Tyson and Bryan in tow, leaving Kenny, Dizzi and Max with the pink-haired girl.
"Can I ask you something?" Dizzi said in a sickening sweet voice. "Why are you so obsessed with Rei?"
Mariah looked the other girl with annoyance and irritation. "Wow…you must be terribly blind. But, no matter, I shall tell you anyway," she held her head up high like what a snob would do. "Rei and I are cousins as you know by now, if not then you're either dense or just completely stupid. Anyway, when I saw him for the first time I just fell in love with him…not cousin wise, but the feeling that you would have for a lover…and I just know that he feels the same way for me, only that he's very shy at the feeling too…" She twirled twice around the room with a dreamy look in her eyes, daydreaming that Rei was holding her in his arms…
Dizzi looked at her like she was some kind of a mentally challenged person. How idiotic can she get? She thought, while Max and Kenny just shook their heads, feeling sorry for Mariah, even though she doesn't deserve the pity. Right before Dizzi could retort back that Rei would never ever love her like how lovers could, Max and Kenny dragged her out of the room fearing that the pink harpy would eat their heads and disembowel their guts out. So with that, the trio left the room, leaving the pink harpy daydreaming at a dream she would always think that it would come true, although we both know you and I that it would never, ever, happen in a million years.
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"Umm…Kai? You can let go of me now…" Rei said, while blushing furiously, still being carried by the waist. It seems like it took for an eternity for Kai to register what Rei had said, since he kept on muttering dark curses under his breath until he saw Rei looking at him with his innocent golden eyes, looking like a cute little kitten waiting to be picked up and cuddled with.
"Oh, sorry," Kai apologized silently; a tinge of red is starting to appear and intertwined with his blue shark fins on his cheeks. "Don't apologize, after all you did save me from my clingy cousin's death-hug," said Rei, smiling cheerfully.
Kai just nodded and walked right beside his fiancé, looking all content and satisfied.
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Tala kept on walking towards the courtyard, feeling all pissed and angry. How dare that girl just waltz in here looking like she owned the place? She's just so lucky that his cousin was there, in fact, she was lucky that people were there at all!
"Tala, slow down will you? And DON'T YOU DARE DESTROY THAT TREE! YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME YOU WERE PISSED OFF!" Tyson ran over to Tala, tried to steer him away from the tree, and dragged him towards the stone benches.
"Ok, breathe, inhale and exhale," Tyson was doing a couple of stupid impressions of breathing "unnormally" if there was such a word or he just moves that way. Anyway, those silly impressions made Tala chuckle so they actually helped! Normally, the person would just smack Tyson into the next millennium and back (referring to Dizzi or Kai).
"Tyson please stop that, you look like an oversized chicken that was squirming away to it wouldn't get slaughtered or something," Bryan cried, while trying to cover his poor, innocent eyes, pretending to not notice Tyson at all. "Hmph, fine! I'll go somewhere, where I am appreciated!" Tyson huffed and walked back inside the castle, leaving a humorous Tala and a not-so-amused Bryan.
"What a spoil-sport, I was only kidding," the lilac-haired boy muttered, while sitting right beside Tala who was shaking head and told him that Tyson takes things way too seriously, WAY, TOO, SERIOUSLY. Anyway silence took over and left both boys sitting there, with nothing to talk about. Well, more like on the outside, but on the inside both boys were having a verbal fight with their inner self.
Though, unknown to both youth, that Tyson didn't actually went inside the castle but to an overgrown bush to either go to the bathroom or just plain spy at his two friends. You see, everybody, and I mean everybody knows that both Tala and Bryan like each other, though both of them are way too stubborn to admit until the other one admits it first. Anyway, the bluenette was getting rather impatient at the situation. 'Argghh…why won't they talk to each other?! This was a fool-proof plan, isn't it?!' he thought, while his eyebrows were burrowing to closely.
Anyway, back to our favourite people, things still seem to be pretty quiet until, one of them decides that silence was bad for you and for your health, so Bryan got up the courage to summon a weird, awkward conversation. "So…are you still pissed off at Mariah?" the lilac-eyed boy gradually rubs the back of his neck every now and then as a sign of nervousness.
Tala looked at Bryan with an annoyed, yet a cute look in his eyes. "Well, I still am, arrgghh…is she always like that every time she comes over to your castle?" Bryan nodded slightly at the question. "Yeah, that…it pisses me off a lot. I swear to Tyson's big fat stomach, if she wasn't Lady Leila and Lord Rai's niece, I would have thrown her out into the fields and made her a serf or somethin'."
From the distant background and into the bushes, Tyson couldn't help but twitch his left eye quite immensely. What does he mean "big, fat stomach"?! He thought, while patting his stomach like it was his pet or something.
Anyway, after Tala had stopped complaining about the evil pink spawn of hell, Bryan thought that it would be a good idea to let all his feelings out in the open, by trying to make him feel all better, so he conjured up an idea inside his sadistic head and began to say it out loud.
"What if I did something…would it make you feel better?" Bryan purred, while suddenly just moved closer to Tala. Meanwhile, Tala just stood there, stunned. What was he trying to do? He thought, while his mind was going out of control. At first, the red headed boy didn't know how to react at the response, although he tried by just using his heart instead of his head.
"I don't know…could you give me a demonstration?" he replied back, giving back the exact flirty-ness that Bryan gave him. Bryan smirked inwardly, 'Yes! He didn't freaked out or anything!' he thought triumphantly, and proceeded on showing Tala his "remedy". With that, the lilac-haired boy winded his arms around Tala's waist and gave him a swift, chaste kiss on the icy-blue eyed boy's sweet, soft lips.
Tala widened his eyes. He was being kissed—or preferably, the one he likes was kissing him! Tala wasted no time and hurriedly tangled his arms around Bryan's neck, and kissed back, making Bryan moan at the touch. The lilac-haired boy ran his tongue lazily into Tala's lips, asking to enter, and Tala agreed quite vehemently opening his mouth so that Bryan's tongue could enter. Bryan then greedily tasted every nook and cranny of Tala's mouth, hungering for more.
Meanwhile, just as the kiss was going deep and intimate, Tyson grinned widely. Meaning that both boys had finally gotten together, words or no words; after all, actions speak louder than words, right? Anyway, seeing that the two were in an intense lip-lock, Tyson left the bushes and searched for some certain people who would love to hear this news.
After a long, deep kiss, both boys drew back for air, panting and gasping for air. Once they had regained their beloved oxygen back, Bryan gave Tala a sweet grin and leaned on the other boy's chest, while Tala wrapped his arms around him.
"So, does this mean…?" asked Bryan, snuggling into Tala's chest, gaining more warmth as he snuggled deeper. "Only if you want to, love. Only if you want to," replied the red headed boy.
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Meanwhile, lets get back to the pink-haired freak, shall we? Anyway, Mariah became more annoyed when Dizzi, Kenny, and Max left her in the room, all alone, with no one to accompany her for her mission to retrieve her beloved cousin, who was abducted by his brutal and cruel fiancé.
'Oh no, what if…what if Rei was getting beaten up by that Hiwatari brat?!' Mariah thought, with horror written in her eyes. She has to find him! 'Mariah has to find him! If not…then what would happen to her poor Rei?!'
With that, Mariah searched every corner of the castle, but found no one! None, zero, zilch, nada! She crossed her arms, and went to her thinking position. If she couldn't find Rei…then…oh dear, it seems like this girl's imagination is too much. She just thought that Rei was being punished in the dungeons! She stomped her foot to the ground and made a decision.
"That's it! That Hiwatari boy is so going to get it for hurting my poor Rei!" she shrieked, and one of her fists up in the air. Mariah then, walked straight directly to where her aunt and uncle are.
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Max, Kenny, Dizzi were by the gazebo, the boredom eating their fresh, innocent minds every seconds passed by. Kenny was standing up, looking out on the fields, enjoying the view. Dizzi was checking at her nails, though mostly she was secretly watching Kenny from behind. And Max? Well, remember the conversation that he had with Tyson? He still remembers what the bluenette had said about him liking someone else, although Tyson was talking about him, the blond didn't know.
"Max, is something bothering you?" asked Dizzi, snapping out from his thoughts. "You don't seem to be hyper today."
Max shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong." Dizzi frowned, while crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't give me that crap, Mizuhara. It's that Mariah isn't it? The way she treated you before?"
"Nah, Mariah was always like that," Kenny had stepped into the conversation, and was now sitting down right beside Dizzi. "Well…it's ab—"
"It's about Tyson isn't it?" Dizzi cut Max's sentence off, and gave him a soft smile. "What did the idiot do now?"
"Well, when we were waiting for the adults to come back, we just had a random conversation about the people we like, and when I asked him who he liked…he said that he likes someone else…" Dizzi and Kenny looked at each other and then back at Max who was in near tears, ready to spill every now and then. It was obvious that Max liked Tyson, and it was also obvious that the bluenette liked him back, though both were oblivious with the feelings for one another.
"Did he say the name of who he likes?" Dizzi asked further, so she and Kenny could try and patch things up between the two boys. When Max shook his head, then Kenny and Dizzi looked at each other again, and realized that Max had misunderstood Tyson into thinking that the bluenette has taken to liking someone else.
"Hey guys!" Well, speak of the devil, it seems that Tyson has found out where the trio are and proceeded to tell them about the good news between Tala and Bryan. "Diz, Kenny…please don't tell Tyson about this…I don't want him to get all subconscious about this "thing", please?" pleaded Max, while Tyson was getting nearer to them.
"Don't worry Maxie, our lips are sealed," Both said at the same time.
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Meanwhile, Mariah still kept on looking for her aunt and uncle, she passed by Tala and Bryan who were cuddling by the stone bench, not noticing her at all, to the gazebo, where Tyson, Max, Kenny, and Dizzi were talking about something that made Dizzi squeal with delight. And there was still no sign of Rei, nor his barbaric of a cousin! Mariah was about to give up, when she caught the soft laughter of her aunt by the other side of the fields. The pink neko-jin ran even though she was wearing a dress and saw that Lord Rai and Lady Leila were by the grassy area, having like a small picnic.
"Mariah! What brings you here, dear?" asked Lady Leila, while patting a grassy path, indicating that her niece should sit right beside her.
The younger girl obliged and took a seat right by her aunt. "Aunt Leila! There's something you need to know!"
"What is it, my dear?"
Mariah took a deep, huge breath and started to explain how she couldn't find Rei or her dear cousin's barbaric fiancé, although she didn't say barbaric. By the time she finished her explained her "theory", Lady Leila just started to laugh, rather unladylike.
"Oh Mariah, you did always have such a creative imagination." Mariah just looked at her Aunt with confusion written on her face. She then looked towards her uncle for some answers and her uncle did have them.
"What your aunt was trying to say is that Kai wouldn't hurt Rei even if his life was depended on it. We both could see how protective Kai is of your cousin, and I think that the young Hiwatari is beginning to feel in love with Rei."
Mariah couldn't believe it, her aunt and uncle thinks that?! Seeing that she was speechless, the pink-haired girl just nodded and went back inside the castle, thinking of ways what else she could do to separate Rei away from Kai.
'Just you wait, Hiwatari Kai, I will take my Rei away from you…and I'll make sure I get what I want, now.'
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Tala: Wow…talk about obsession.
Others: --agrees with Tala—
Crystal: --comes in limping— Hi y'all…
Bryan: What happened to you?! Your clothes are torn and your all dirty!
Crystal: Umm…well…I was walking down the street, then these Mariah fans came and somehow they found out about the bashing, and decided to have me as their punching bag…
Tala: WHAT?! Are you ok, dear cousin?
Crystal: --smiles cheerfully— Don't worry Tala! I kicked a lot of butts, though I was outnumbered… 13 to 1… Anyway, please don't forget to review!
Tala: Come on, we have some Mariah wanna be's to hunt.