Chapter 4

The days to the party passed in a happy blur. She couldn't remember having this much fun with her friends for a long time. The night of the party finally arrived and Garnet was in Hilary's dorm room, getting ready. She had ditched her red dress, and gone full-on electric punk, wearing bright blue bondage trousers, a bubble-gum pink t-shirt ripped at the sleeves, and spiked purple wristbands. Hilary offered to give her a Mohawk, but she declined, noticing the devilish grin on her friend's face. They arrived at the gym, where they saw almost everyone on the dance-floor. When I say almost everyone, I mean to say that everyone except Kai was on the dance-floor. He was leaning against the wall, tapping his foot to songs that he liked, and closing his eyes with a scowl at the ones he didn't. Garnet walked up and stood beside him. She had never been much of a dancer. Kai glanced over at her and raised his eyebrow slightly at her drastic change of dress. It was as much of a reaction as she was going to get.

"Are you enjoying the party?" she asked, a little nervous.

"I'm anti-social, what do you think?" Kai replied in the same bored monotone that he used for everything.

"I was just wondering," she mumbled.

"It's a normal question to ask," Kai commented dryly.

They stood together in silence from then on, just listening to music. After a while Kai stretched, and pushed himself away from the wall.

"I'm going outside. It's too crowded in here," he muttered.

With that he opened the side door of the gym and walked out into the spitting rain. Garnet sighed and turned to see Tyson staring in the direction Kai had left in. There was a strange look of what she could only call longing. She tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He jerked violently, like he'd resurfaced from deep thoughts.

"Hey, looks like we're the only people (barring Kai) not doing anything. D'you want to get a drink? See if we can stop Max getting sugar-high," she smiled.

"Sure, but I think we may be way too late," Tyson replied, regaining his 10-watt grin.

The rest of the party was fun, but relatively uneventful. They were indeed too late to stop Max getting sugar-high, because they saw him dragging Rei to the dance-floor in childishly high spirits. They almost got Kenny to try the karaoke, by hiding his laptop. Unfortunately Daichi wasn't the best person to have hidden it, since Kenny found it before they could sign his name up for a song. And through it all, Kai didn't reappear. Towards the end of the party, Garnet noticed Tyson slip outside through the same door Kai had used. He had been quiet and thoughtful for most of the evening, which was very unlike him. She frowned. Instinct told her to follow him, but she felt an inexplicable feeling of guilt as she did so. She crept out the gym door, and sprinted down to the wall near the library, where Kai always went when he wanted to think. She saw Tyson and Kai a little way off the wall, apparently arguing. She hid behind the stairs to the library, where she could see and hear them perfectly without being seen herself.

"What is your problem, Kai?" Tyson asked angrily.

"Well let's see. I have a power-hungry grandfather and his sadistic maniac of a henchman trying to use me as a living weapon. That enough?" Kai replied calmly.

"That doesn't explain why you keep pushing me away all the time," Tyson retorted.

"Yes it does! I don't want to see you hurt because of me," Kai argued fiercely.

"I don't care about that! Can't you see? I've been through worse, I can assure you! Just answer me one thing, ok?" Tyson pleaded.

"Ok, I'm listening."

"Do you love me or not?" Tyson asked quietly.

"Jesus, Ty! You know I do!" Kai yelled in exasperation.

"Then why do you keep trying to hide it?"

"I... I... I don't know, ok!" Kai sighed. "Happy now?"

"Not yet," Tyson replied, smiling kindly.

With that, Tyson reached up and kissed him. At first Kai looked startled, but after a few moments closed his eyes and returned it. Kai wrapped his arms around Tyson's waist and Tyson clung to him, like he would fall if he didn't. They didn't seem to notice the rain, which was now falling harder and faster. Everything seemed to be centred around each other.

And I'll finish there for now. Finally, I've actually written some TyKa! YAY!