"Are you alright?"

Kai could have hit himself. Obviously Tala was far from being alright. His quick mind and skilled tongue seemed to desert him when he needed them the most, and he was left to ponder wether this encounter would find it's end in a full-out fist fight. To his surprise, however, the redhead just nodded dumbly. A very un-Talaish thing to do. It was unnerving, in the tense situation, to see the other boy act so unlike himself, but Kai could only guess his own behaviour was far from what others might consider normal.

Of course, this was not a normal situation. The bluenette silently decided to stop trying to figure things out, since it was truly not a good time to brood. It was, however, a decent time to try to initiate at least some interaction between Tala and himself.

At the same time, the boy in question sat on his chair, staring now at his right knee, as Kai was on his left side. He wasn't thinking much at the moment, still in shock at the disappointment of his great expectations towards whatever the other blader had to say. Perhaps Kai himself wasn't truly aware of his power over the redhead, or perhaps he was just trying to judge Tala's reactions and base his own actions on them… The demolition boy, having just recently come to terms with the situation himself, or more likely resigned himself to the role he would be forced to have, for the first time wondered how Kai was stomaching all of it. He never had the chance to give it a second tought as a red-clad hand lightly touched, then encircled his upper arm and pulled him from his chair to stand beside the other.

Kai had decided it was pointless to try and make conversation, as neither one of them excelled in smalltalk. The firm decision helped him regain some of his self-control and he reached out abruptly and grabbed Tala's left arm, at the last moment reminding himself to be gentle about it, and he pulled the white-clad boy up and towards himself. Said boy tensed, not surprisingly, but went along without protest. He stopped in front of Kai and, refusing both to meet his gaze and stare at the ground, fixed his eyes on the long, white scarf the other always wore.

Kai did not release his arm, but let his hand slide lower on it, over the elbow and towards the wrist, at the same time pulling softly until he got the small, white hand out of the wide jacket's pocket. Tala's only reaction was to turn his eyes towards his own hand, now encircled by Kai's stronger-looking, hard, blader's fingers. The red-eyed boy was himself quite surprised at the contrast of adjectives that crossed his mind as he held Tala's hand. The slender, pale digits looked frail but felt strong, calloused by years of blading and harsh training.

He didn't stop to give it a second tought, somewhat afraid that the long, uncomfortable and insecure silence from before might repeat itsself.

So he tightened his hold a little and pulled the unresisting teen towards the bedroom's door. They walked the short distance in silence, taking small, unhurried steps. Kai walked in front while Tala followed close behind and to his right, still not taking his eyes off their hands, as if mesmerised. He seemed confused, and quite disoriented by that first contact between them. So much so that he was quite surprised to suddenly find himself in another room. His attention was captured by the huge bed in it's center. He was standing right in front of it and staring at it with some mortification, as it seemed to hold all sorts of implications. He barely felt the touch of another hand on his right shoulder, turning his back towards the bed as if in a dream. All of his reflexes seemed to be gone, a lifetime of training forgotten for just one instant as he felt a light push backward. He came back to himself, awoken from his trance only by the feeling of his behind hitting the bed's soft covers. Beside him, to his right this time, Kai sat down while giving him a slightly worried look.

The blue-haired russian couldn't help but to be relieved, even if slightly worried, by Tala's strangely submissive behaviour. Deciding once again to deny himself the time to ponder, he reached out slowly to touch the boy's other hand. It was a good start, in his opinion, as they had had no physical contach whatsoever before. He let his fingers run lightly over the not-quite-tense wrist before slipping them carefully between the fingers and thumb. Feeling he had established the needed contact and knowing he now had the red-head's attention, he looked at the pale face, with it's sharp blue eyes currently examining their interlinked hands, and didn't even try to cover a sigh. At this, Tala raised his chin and, for the first time since they'd been in the same room, their eyes met. Kai took this as a sign to start talking.

"You know what's going to happen, right?" He hadn't meant for it to sound quite like that, but gentleness had never beed one of his strong points. Boldness, he reminded himself, was. Tala nodded hesitantly, but his proud blue eyes never left Kai's. This motivated the other blader to continue. "Do you know the mechanics of it?" At this the red-eyed boy almost blushed, almost. He was greately relieved to see Tala nod. At the way their conversation was going, he didn't think he would have been able to explain it to him… It never even crossed his mind to ask if Tala was a virgin or not. In the abbey, constantly watched by cameras and guards, locked in their cell-like rooms at night, the boys realy had had no way of getting close to eachother.

As the red-head didn't seem too intimidated by his questions, Kai decided he should continue. He had to get this out first, to get all the problems out of the way. The act in itsself was another thing, to be dealt with after they had this talk. His eyes never left the wolf's, and he could see the mask that so perfectly covered all emotions in the boy's eyes. Tala was probably scared, probably hated him for bringing forth such helplessness for the usually controlled russian. And for a moment, all Kai wanted to do was to reach out and hug him, bury his face in that blazing hair and promise not to hurt him. But that would never happen. Even if the bladebreacker's captain did bring himself to do it, the act would be interpretted as pity and further humiliate the blue-eyed russian. But he had to somehow tell Tala he had no bad intentions.

"I.." the words wouldn't come as the blue eyes seemed to steal all of his rational toughts from him. Figuring, under the pressure of the moment, that by redirecting that sharp gaze he would regain his usual calm, he did the first thing that came to mind to get Tala to look away. He leant forward quickly and brushed their cheeks toghether, lightly kissing a high cheekbone near an ear. As expected, Tala's soft breathing hitched and his eyes went once again to his hand that Kai had never released, instead only squeezing it tighter as he had leant towards it's owner.

Kai was impressed, he had expected the other boy to pull back in shock. Tala's self-control was greater than what he had estimated. Yet the image of the pale boy with downcast eyes was starting to leave a powerfull impression on him and, still feeling Tala's smell in his nose after the soft kiss, he decided he had to end it faster.

"I won't lie to you, it'll hurt, at first. But I'll be carefull about it and the pain is not that bad, compared to what you've been trough. If you can't take it, or if you need me to stop at any time, just say it and I'll stop."

Finally out, was all that ran trough Kai's mind. Yet again, his wording had not beed the best, but at least he had said all that needed to be said. One look at Tala and his relief wanished instantly. The red-head didn't even bother to nod this time, just moved his gaze from their hands to his knee again.

Kai didn't wait any longer, knowing that the more time he let pass the more nervous Tala would get. Releasing the hand he had conquered only a short while ago, he got off the bed, bent down in front of the placidly sitting demolition boy and, slipping his hands under the red-head's armpits, raised him to his full height and a little higher, onto his tip-toes. Then he let go of the slightly confused-looking russian and reached in to the pockets of the other's jacket. Tala instinctively raised his hands to stop him, hesitated a little, but still placed them on the larger hands that were taking wolborg and his launcher from him.

"I'll just set them aside so they won't end up on the floor somewhere." Kai assured him, fully understanding the worry that had appeared for only a second in those icy blue eyes. He moved slowly, as one would while trying to keep from scaring a shy kitten, taking a few steps towards a nearby dresser and placing blade and launcher on them. Then he leant down and removed his own blade from the pocket of his wide pants, setting it beside Tala's. As a second tought, he then removed his armguards as well, before turning back towards the other boy.

A/N: I know, there must be a lot of people out there who hate me now. I'm quite aware how long I took to update this. In my defence, I've just moved to another city and have been deprived of the internet for quite some time.

I've noticed (a little late now XD) that the plot I have is pretty hard to write for someone with as little experience as me. That's why I'm afraid I'm having trouble keeping the two in character, especially Tala. I could use some tips for them.

Also, please feel free to point out big grammatical (or otherwise) mistakes I make.

I hope this time the POV's are easier to discern… I'm not so good at that, either. Sorry.