Title: Innocence

Author: PandaPjays

Chapter Title: Missing

Rating: T

Warnings: See First Chapter

Disclaimer: See First Chapter

Author Note: I was all happy to make you wait a bit longer for this chapter but animeobsession had other plans. So you have her to thank for this chapter being up so early and for it being all nice and error free (hopefully) because she also edited this for me. Okay- homage to animeobsession over

Kai's eyes snapped open as he jolted awake. He shut his eyes just as quickly when he realised that he hadn't shut the curtains the night before. He groaned and rolled over, catching sight of the empty bed beside his own.

Rei had been missing for a week. By the time he had been missing for one day it had been painfully obvious that he wasn't coming back.

Kai sighed and sat up, blinking sleep out of his eyes, if Rei had been here he would be awake by now, with all the noise I'm making, he thought to himself.

In actual fact Kai was making hardly any sound. He had been trained from a very early age to move silently.

He stood and shut the curtains, shutting out the light and plunging the room into darkness. Kai closed his eyes and basked in the coolness of the shadows before setting himself the task of dressing.

Fully dressed, Kai opened the door of his room and stuck his head out, trying to see if anyone else was awake. The hallway was eerily quiet. Concluding that everyone was still asleep, Kai stepped outside of his room and shut his door quietly.

Even though Rei's disappearance had left a spare bed Kai had refused to let Tala sleep in the same room as him. That meant that extra blankets had to be brought into the room and Tala had to make himself at home on the couch. This may have been uncomfortable for Tala but it kept Kai sane.

As Kai made his way to the kitchen he stopped at the door of the living room and glanced inside. He was greeted with a very tired-looking Tala sitting up and glaring at him.

"Stop walking so loudly", he complained before burrowing underneath his blankets.

Kai smirked. Tala never had been a morning person. It was always at least ten o'clock before the redhead was firing all engines. Until then it wasn't wise to annoy him. That tendency of Tala's had often gotten him into trouble at the Abbey…

Kai shook his head, trying to shake those thoughts out of his mind. He had only just recovered his memories of the Abbey recently. Many of the events that he remembered were ones that he wished he could forget forever. Unfortunately, his mind had different plans.

"If you're going to stand there and breathe so loudly make yourself useful and make me a coffee" the pile of blankets shifted so Kai could see a pair of blue eyes and a nose poking out of it.

Kai sighed and walked into the kitchen. He had never understood Tala's addiction to coffee. It was a rare treat for Tala to be able to drink anything with even a slightly nice taste. Kai never understood why when he was allowed to drink anything that tasted of something he went for coffee. The bitter taste wasn't something anyone could possibly long for.

Tala had once tried to explain the attraction of coffee before he had left the Abbey for the first time. His explanation had gone something along the lines of 'It tastes horrible, but it gives you a buzz so it's worth it'. Kai didn't really see the logic in it but then again he didn't have to drink the stuff.

He mixed the instant coffee mixture in with the boiling water as he thought. The Bladebreakers and Tala had spent the last night calling anyone and everyone Rei had ever talked to/met/made eye contact with. Needless to say, that was a lot of people. The only people that they hadn't been able to get in contact with were the White Tigers.

The White Tigers had returned to their village in China after being defeated. That was all well and good, except that their village was yet to join the rest of the word in the 21st century. Or even in the 20th century. In fact, they had just skipped the age of electronics altogether. That meant, of course, that they didn't have a phone.

Who on earth didn't have a phone these days? Kai thought as he added milk into the brown coffee/water mixture. It's just impractical.

He carried the cup in to the lounge room where Tala was still snuggling into his blankets. He handed the cup to Tala and seated himself across the room.

Kai hadn't said anything to Tala about the… incident of the previous week. He just hadn't had enough time. Tala seemed to have forgotten all about it so he didn't really see the point in bringing it up.

He knew that if Rei had been there he would have noticed that something was wrong. But he wasn't and no one else had spent enough time around him to notice anything. No one except for Tala, that is. And he was too busy with his own concerns to notice.

The object of Kai's musings sipped his coffee gingerly and made a face. "Tastes horrible, as usual" He stared into the cup's depths before shrugging and taking another sip.

Kai rolled his eyes before relaxing against the back of his chair. "If you're going to drink it don't complain about it"

"But there's no point if I don't complain, it's part of the whole coffee experience!"

"No it's not. When Rei drinks his…" Kai trailed off, he hadn't meant to mention the missing neko-jin. While the rest of his team had been going insane with worry Kai had been the voice of reason organizing ways to try and find Rei. It had gotten to the point of Tyson calling him a heartless bastard because he didn't seem to care that Rei was missing.

"You miss him don't you?" Tala's voice broke through Kai's thoughts bringing him back to reality.

Kai looked away from Tala, keeping his face emotionless. He hadn't meant for Tala to know that. He hadn't meant for anyone to know that.

"Thought so. You hide it well"

"Hn", Kai stood up and walked out of the room.

Tala sighed and continued to study his coffee. He knew that he should feel upset that Kai seemed to be so affected by the neko-jin. He knew that he should. And yet he didn't.

He drank the last of his coffee before setting it on the table and wrapping himself firmly in his blankets again.

I'd love to go see a psychiatrist one day. Maybe they'd understand what is going on in my head.

------

Max woke slowly. He was so tired last night that he couldn't even remember getting to bed. He shook his head trying to clear the fog that clouded his mind. That only helped to give him a headache. He felt like his brain was rattling around in his skull.

He sighed and sat up, ignoring the slightly dizzy feeling that the change in altitude gave him. No more late nights for me. He thought ruefully.

He stood up and left the room, moving as quietly as possible so he wouldn't wake up Tyson or Kenny.

He shut the door quietly behind him and padded to the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. Definitely no more late nights.

Max rummaged around in the cupboard until he found a packet of fruit loops. Hopefully the overabundance of sugar would wake him up. He doubted it but it was worth a try.

Kai walked into the kitchen and turned to the fridge completely ignoring Max. He opened the fridge and began to study its contents.

Max swallowed his mouthful and cleared his throat, alerting Kai to his presence.

The Russian whirled around to face him. His crimson eyes were wide in shock. He had thought he had been alone. Seeing Max he composed himself, letting his emotionless mask fall into place.

"What are you doing up this early?" he demanded, harshly.

Max blinked in astonishment. He'd managed to shock Kai? Wasn't that impossible? Even when it had become apparent that Rei was genuinely missing Kai hadn't been shocked or upset or… anything, really. He'd just been Kai.

"I just woke up this early, that's all. Too bad that no one we called last night knew where Rei was, hey?"

"Hn" Kai turned his back on Max and began to fossick through the fridge again. Why were questions about Rei affecting him so much? It didn't make sense to him. But, then again, when had the world ever made sense? He sighed and reached into the fridge, pulling out the first thing he could grab.

He shut the door before actually looking at what he held. It was a carton of chocolate milk. He stared at it for a second, puzzled, who drinks chocolate milk? It probably doesn't have enough sugar for Max; it's too hard to get into for Tyson and Kenny can't drink milk. He shrugged and opened it before drinking half it's contents in his first gulp.

Kai sat down beside Max at the bench and sipped his milk. He wasn't particularly thirsty- or hungry for that matter- but it gave his hands something to do.

Max tactfully decided not to say anything. He concentrated on eating his cereal.

Tala wandered into the kitchen. He opened up the door of the fridge and searched through it. "Has anyone seen my chocolate milk? I'm sure I put it in here", he asked while still looking for it.

Oops, Kai thought as he moved the carton out of sight on to his lap.

Max noticed the movement and suppressed a smile. At least someone has a sense of humour. I never would have picked it would be Kai… Or maybe that's not humour, maybe that's just trying to survive- maybe Tala's just way too protective of his milk. Or maybe… Note to self: no sleep equals rambling in head.

Tala turned around. "Have either of you seen it? It can't have just disappeared."

"Why would we have seen your milk? If it's anywhere it'll be in Tyson's stomach. You should know by now that no food is safe when Tyson is around." Kai told him matter-of-factly.

It took all of Max's self-control not to burst out laughing.

Tala scowled. "Tyson!" He stormed out of the kitchen heading towards the room that Tyson was sleeping in.

Max turned to Kai when Tala was out of earshot. "You've done it now. When Tala finds out it wasn't Tyson he's going to be furious with you."

Kai smirked. "Whoever said he'd find out it was me?" Saying that he drained the last of the milk and threw it in the bin, under a few layers of junk to make it look like it had been there a while. "No, let's go watch Tyson try and fend off Tala. This should be interesting."

Saying that the Russian left the room. Max stared after him. Kai was evil. He just knew how to hide it well. After a second of pondering that thought Max mentally shrugged and followed him. This should be interesting.

As he rounded the corner he was greeted with the sight of Tyson standing at the door of the bedroom looking like he'd just woken up with Tala ranting in his face.

"…Can't just take things! That was mine and you can't just take it like it was all yours. I was really looking forward to drinking it only to find out that you stole it! I can't believe you!" With that, Tala stalked off, leaving Tyson to look after him with a confused expression on his face.

He looks kinda cute when he's confused, Max mused. Whoa, where'd that thought come from? Max began to study the paintwork on the ceiling.

"Um… ok. Does anyone want to tell me what just happened?" Tyson looked around blearily. "Or am I just going to put that down as 'Tala being strange'?"

"You know perfectly well what that was about! It's called being caught!" Tala's voice drifted down the hallway from the kitchen.

"Definitely Tala being strange"

"I heard that!"

"Well I wasn't exactly whispering was I?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Be grateful, I may have just saved your life."

Tyson shot a confused look at Max who had stopped admiring the paintwork. 'What's his problem?' he mouthed at the blonde.

Max shrugged. When did he become privy to the inner workings of Tala's mind? For that matter, when did he want to? Some things were better left alone.

Kai sighed and left the hallway to go to the kitchen again. That hadn't been nearly as entertaining or distracting as he had hoped. He walked in on Tala noisily making himself another cup of coffee. He was muttering to himself in Russian about how inconsiderate some people were.

"Why can't people leave me alone in the mornings?" he complained when he noticed Kai's entrance.

"Because you do such a good job at making them leave you alone during the rest of the day" Kai told him matter-of-factly before taking a seat at the bench.

Tyson entered the room with Max following close behind him. Tala look up from his coffee making and glared at him. The midnight-blue haired boy visibly gulped before turning his full attention on Kai.

"Kai, I've been thinking-"

"Well that's a first" Tala interjected as he poured water into his cup.

Tyson glared at the redhead, "Did I ask for your opinion?"

"No, it came free of charge" Tala considered his cup for a moment then added another spoonful of coffee to it's contents. At this rate he was going to need it.

"Whatever. Anyway, Kai, I was thinking about how we couldn't get in contact with the White Tigers yesterday. What if me and Max went to their village and talked to them in person? That way, you, Tala and Kenny would be her in case if Rei comes back!"

Kai blinked. Tyson had actually come up with a plan? Tyson had come up with a plan? When had Old MacDonald started teaching pigs to fly?

"It could work, but Kenny would go with you. He's the only one who would have a clue about how to get to China."

It was Tyson's turn to blink. "Y-you're actually agreeing to my plan?"

"I don't intend to make a habit of it."

"WHOOT!" Tyson yelled before dragging Max into their room to wake up Kenny and start packing.

Tala took a sip of his extra strong coffee and winced at the bitterness. "Do you think that was a good idea?"

Kai sighed and turned to him. "Probably not, but it's too late now."

"Do you think they'll find him there?"

The bluenette sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I hope so."

Please tell me what you think.