Title: Innocence

Author: PandaPjays

Chapter Title: Orange

Rating: T

Warnings: See First Chapter

Disclaimer: See First Chapter

Author Note: Hehe and here's yet more of Rei's insane mind-talk I hope you enjoy it

I shook my head as we approached Kai. Why did seeing the colour orange freak me all out? Lord knows there's enough of it on this beach- orange seems to be the 'in' colour at the moment. I mentally shrugged. Thoughts to ponder when I'm not in the presence of Mr. Hot-As-Hell- formerly known as Kai Hiwatari.

You know, it would be really nice if he actually noticed we were in his presence.

C'mon, Mr. Hot, you can't really be ignoring Tyson's stomach. That sound could wake the dead.

Oh God! You're not dead are you? No, wait, still breathing. Thank the lord of this shiny green Earth.

Thankfully during all of this internal crazy-talk I managed to keep a straight face. I decided to put Tyson out of his misery.

"Uh …Kai …Um …I think Tyson's hungry"

What was that? Smooth, Rei, Smooth.

Kai cracked open one crimson eye. Did I ever mention how much I love his eyes? I've never seen anyone with eyes that colour. It's mesmerizing. And hot. Have I mentioned hot?

"And this is news?" He smirked and shut his eye again.

"True, but I think that if he gets any hungrier the beach is going to have a serious anything-resembling-food shortage and I don't like that guy's chances," I said pointing to a guy in a hotdog outfit.

Kai opened his eyes and looked at me. I struggled not to swoon. One eye was gorgeous by itself but two of them? Not only two of them but two of them looking at me. Life is good.

Kai smirked again and stood up, dusting sand off himself.

"We best save him then"

He bent down and scooped up the bag that held all of our towels and the unused bottle of Banana boat. We were all getting skin cancer when we got older. I studied Kai's face. His skin was as pale as ever after lying in the sun for a good hour. He must be one of those lucky people who don't get sunburnt. I looked over at Max, who was walking next to Tyson. He had a definite pink-ish tinge about him.

We followed Kai out of the beach area and headed back toward the penthouse we were staying at.

We arrived and dropped our beach gear off. We left wearing slightly more normal clothes, if you can call Kai's scarf in summer normal. There was a restaurant down the road from where we were staying. We walked to it and I managed to glance at the sign above the doorway. "Sizze-something".

We walked through the door and Tyson dove into the queue for the all you can eat buffet. He pulled Max in with him and I soon lost sight of them. There such were lots of people here. Thankfully Mr. Dickinson was footing the bill for our holiday- we could never afford it otherwise.

Kai and I made our rather more sedate way to join the queue. I have no idea how he managed to get through the crowd without someone getting tangled up in his scarf. Must be an I'm-Kai's-scarf-and-if-you-dare-touch-me-I-will-smother-you-all vibe. Either that or people didn't want to risk being tripped up by his scarves. Could be either of them.

I stood in front of Kai and surveyed the food. Not much was there- Tyson obviously had already been there. I guessed we were in for a long wait until the restaurant had recovered and refilled the dishes.

What can I do until then? There was always the possibility of Kai-gazing. No- must resist. But it's so tempting. I can almost feel his body heat, never mind that there's about a billion other people in this room. In fact- GAH!

Ouch! What just happened? More importantly, why do I have a scarf in my mouth? Hey, wait up; do I have a scarf in my mouth? That must mean… Oh My God! I've died and gone to heaven. A painful heaven, but heaven nonetheless. Whoever pushed Kai over on to me thank-you. Thank-you so much.

Hey wait! I can breathe again! That must mean he's gotten up. And I'm still lying here on the ground with a rather dazed expression on my face and… yep I can feel that I'm blushing. Probably should get up now.

Nah I think I'll stay her for a bit longer, savour the memory.

And Kai's looking at me weirdly, definitely should get up now.

Ok. Up now. I rubbed my back. Contact with Kai was good but I'm going to be hobbling around like a cripple for the rest of the day. But on second thoughts, it was worth it.

What should I have? The restaurant seems to have recovered from the Tyson-blitz in world record time and there's food on offer again. I collected my plate and piled it with food before going to sit down at the table Tyson had picked for us. It's the one closest to the buffet table- go figure. I kinda feel sorry for the chef here- he had no warning.

I glanced over at Max. He seems to have lost his sunburn… strange, I've never heard of a sunburn healing that fast. And… is he staring at Tyson eating? I know it's a horrifying sight but you think he'd be used to it by now.

I mentally shrugged and focused on more important things, such as the fact that Kai's coming over to us. He's looking about as dignified as one can in a restaurant filled with little kids trying to catch your scarves. I guess the don't-touch-me vibe is on the blink. But that really isn't a bad thing… and that road only leads to the gutter, you gutter-mind, you.

Kai reached us and sat across from me. I began to study my salad in great detail. Do you know how many shades of green are in this salad? Hey! Maybe I can count them. 1…2…3…

"Hey, Rei, are you done eyeballing your salad? Your nose is almost touching it." Tyson told me when he looked up from his food.

I sat up quickly only to catch Kai staring at me. Sure, in an 'are-you-quite-alright-there-you-crazy-salad-sniffer?' way but beggars can't be choosers.

Ok. I have to look away from Kai now. Now… any moment, eyes, feel free to look away. C'mon you know if you keep on looking my mouth is going to open and drool will happen.

Kai broke the stare. Thank God! I don't think I could have stood another second without lunging across the table and… back to studying my salad.

My salad's actually quite interesting. It isn't a conventional salad I just went through the salad bar and grabbed anything that looked interesting. There's a lot of lettuce on it. Whoever knew you could get red lettuce? Actually it's more purpley looking. Almost the colour of Kai's eyes, really. Heh, Kai's eyes, it rhymes.

Speaking of Kai's eyes I wonder what Kai's thinking at this very moment? But then again do I really want to know? He's probably thinking about how much training we have to do after we get back from this holiday. I wish he wasn't always so serious and focused sometimes. But then again that's part of his allure. Kind of the strong, silent type vibe.

Well, silent definitely. I wonder how strong he is? I mean judging by that muscle tone he's definitely not on the weaker side of the scale. How does he manage to keep that tone anyway? He never seems to exercise enough to break a sweat let alone the hard training that you need to keep in that condition. Maybe he does one of those low impact routines while we're asleep? I've heard those are good for maintaining muscle tone.

Great, I now have a mental image of Kai doing Pilates.

Hey wait up! Everyone's getting up. I guess they're all finished. I'm sure I didn't space out that much did I?

"Rei? Are you sure you're ok? You hardly touched your food."

I looked down at my plate. My entire salad concoction was still there. If I didn't know any better I'd say it's grinning at me. I guess it's glad it wasn't eaten.

Hey, am I contemplating the many moods of salad? I'm sure that's on the list of 'How to know you're insane.'

That along with hairy palms.

I looked down at my palms discreetly. Nope, still hairless, I'm fine.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Tyson, just not hungry…"

Oops, wrong thing to say to him. He looks like he's about to expire from shock.

"…For the food here."

Oh, good save, me, good save. I surprise myself sometimes.

"Oh! Fair enough. I don't think we have that much at the hotel though."

"And why would that be, Tyson?" Kai asks him, smirking.

"Because the hotel didn't provide enough in the minibar"

"They had lot's of chocolate, though"

"You have a scary addiction to the sugar rush, Max, did you know that?"

"I can't help it that I like sugar"

"And I can't help it that I like food"

We walked outside while that riveting conversation was going on.

"Hey Maxie!"

"Yeah?"

"I'll race you back to the hotel"

"You're on!"

Tyson and Max ran off, leaving me alone with Kai. Hey wait, where is Kai? I hate these crowds. I can't see him anywhere. Hey, is that a scarf? I hope so.

I started to run toward it. What if it isn't and I lose Kai? That's just a horrible thought. I'll probably meet him back in the hotel, anyway. But what if I don't? What if I never see- OOF!

Ouch. Second time today that I've fallen down rather painfully. Is it black Friday or something?

"I am so sorry. I was trying to find my friend and…" I looked at the person I had run into. Orange clothes, blue eyes, hair in two weird points…

"Oh My God! What are you doing here Tala!"

Please tell me what you think.