Forever

Rei looked from Tala, to Kai, then back to Tala, then to Zeo who was watching them. He sat down opposite Zeo. Kai and Tala where staring deeply into each other's eyes, unblinking. Rei sighed then passed Kai his tea, Tala his coffee, and Zeo his hot chocolate. He watched, amused, as Kai and Tala both took a swig of their drinks, not parting eye contact, and most importantly; not blinking. Then Kai blinked.

"WHOOP! Oh yea! How's THAT for victory!" Tala cheered, standing up. Rei quickly grabbed his drink incase it fell off the table, then Kai stood up abruptly, Rei grabbed his drink.

"You so cheated!" Rei sighed. Zeo laughed a bit then took Tala's cup in his arms so Rei could get his own.

"How did I?" Tala asked, folding his arms.

"I don't know! But you ALWAYS find a way to cheat!"

"At a starting contest against you, I don't need to cheat." Rei sighed and decided to talk to Zeo instead of listening to the arguments.

"How long have they been at this for?" Rei asked, Zeo looked at his watch and sweat-dropped.

"The staring, fifteen to twenty minute, but before that they where playing chess, and before that some other mind game."

"This is since this morning, right?" Zeo nodded, it was almost dinnertime. "Want to help make dinner?"(A/N: Dinner Lunch, Tea-time Dinner)

"And miss these two fight? Of course!" Rei laughed a little and he and Rei walked into the kitchen. Kai and Tala settled down and Kai sat, drinking his tea up. Tala did the same, then had the best idea ever.

"A milk drinking contest! (A/N: YAY!) I challenge you to a milk drinking contest!" Kai stood so he was the same height as Tala.

"You're on!

Zzz

"So, Zeo, what did you get everyone for Christmas?" Rei asked Zeo. Zeo got a bit nervous.

"Well…you see…there's one more present I need to get." Rei looked at him

"For who?" He turned on the oven.

"Umm…Tala." Rei smirked. Zeo got even more uncomfortable.

"What where you planning on buying?" Zeo scratched his head.

"Well, I finished making this jumper and teddy-bear and-" The two looked at the door as a big thump and bang where heard. Tala was now on the floor as he and Kai tried to get through t the same time, he got up and pushed Kai out his way so he got to the fridge first. Kai ran to Rei.

"What? I was having a nice conversation with a NORMAL person for once!" Kai was panting a bit.

"Milk…drinking…you…time." He said, then got a few pints of milk out the fridge. Both Kai and Tala had four each. Rei finished chopping some greens and told Zeo to cook the meat in the pan till it was white.

"So what do I do?" Rei asked sitting down.

"You need to tell us when a minute is over, then we stop and see who drank the most." Tala said as Kai was fiddling with the milk top. Rei nodded and took over what Kai was doing.

"Ok, are you both ready," Kai and Tala glared at each other. "GO!" They both started drinking, oblivious to what the other was doing. Rei then noticed a trickle of milk coming from Tala's lip and smiled. The old 'don't drink it all' trick. He looked at the clock, Kai had just started on his second pint a few seconds after Tala.

By the time Rei was going to stop them, they were both on their last pints. Kai was going slightly red and Tala had his eyes closed.

"STOP!" Rei said, both bladers slammed the glasses down, Tala had just a bit left. He jumped up, cheering, Zeo was clapping, and obviously forgetting about the chicken, but quickly remembered it when he smelt burning. Rei turned to Kai. "There has to be something you can beat him at." Kai nodded.

"Cards, I can beet him at most card games apart from cheat, but considering cheating is his talent, it's quite hard," Kai rested his head on the table. "I can beat him at chess, but that's quite hard to cheat in." Rei chuckled.

"How about Chinese checkers? I have a spare board upstairs," Kai nodded enthusiastically. "I'll go get it, I ought to teach you how to cheat. Will you sort out the chicken please, Zeo needs to come with me." Kai nodded and took Tala to the stove to sort it all out while Rei pulled Zeo upstairs.

Zzz

"As you where saying, you made a teddy-bear and jumper…"

"I was thinking of giving that to him…I'm not sure though." Zeo pulled out a box from Rei's luggage.

"I think he'd like that! Why don't you ask Gwen? She might know." Zeo nodded.

"Hi guys! I heard my name! What did you want?" Came a bubbly voice from the door.

"Speak of the devil." Rei said, she stuck her tongue out. Rei nudged Zeo, He could tell Zeo was nervous.

"Umm…Gwen…does your brother like hand-made things?" He asked, Gwen looked slightly shocked.

"It depends what it is." She said. Rei decided to speak for Zeo, as this wasn't getting anywhere.

"He made this jumper and bear and he wants to know if Tala would like them as a Christmas present." Zeo couldn't help the color rise in his cheeks, Gwen grinned at him.

"I'm sure he'd like it! He loves bears, and if it's from you, he'd LOVE it!" She ran off to the kitchen and left Zeo and Rei. Rei punched Zeo on the arm.

"See, nothing to worry about, we can go round now and get it!" Rei said, picking up the box and starting to go out the room. Zeo ran after him.

"Are you sure that's ok? Right now?" Rei nodded. Zeo stopped for a moment. "Umm…Rei…is something burning?" Rei sniffed the air.

"DAMN! THE DINNER!"

zzz

Rei took off his coat as they got to Zeo's house. He, Zeo, Ruia and Gwen had come to get the present for Tala. Gwen wanted to see what it looked like, and Ruia just wanted to go for a walk. Rei looked round the main hall, he couldn't believe how big it was. He knew it was big, not this big. He followed the others upstairs and into Zeo's room. Zeo went to the closet and pulled out a box from the top shelf. The box was slightly yellow and had a green bow on it. Zeo undid the tie and opened it, pulling out a big, wooly, dark green jumper with a appliqué of two bears on. Underneath that was a black teddy wearing a green cotton puff jacket with a fur-lined hood. He put them on the floor and looked at the others.

"Well?" He asked. "What do you think?" Rei could tell that was more meant to Gwen than anyone else.

"They're so cute! I know my brother would LOVE them! wow! You're so good at this stuff!" Zeo blushed slightly.

"It was just something I've been working on, I didn't know what to do with it, and I thought of giving it to Tala as I don't have anything for him yet." Zeo said, he looked at Rei.

"I think he'd like it to, it looks like you put quite a bit of effort into it," Rei said, Ruia and Gwen where fussing over the bear and how to put it back into the box correctly. Rei stood up and everyone looked at him. "If we don't get home soon, Tala and Kai will probably try and tell what their presents are!"

zzz

"And this one is…" Kai shook the box next to his ear. "I think it's something to do with sweets, would've guessed though, it's for Tyson." Tala was looking round the back.

"I'm short of a present!" He wined. "You've all got…about nine each, I've only got eight." Kai looked at where Tala was looking.

"Hey, you're right! Who are you missing one from?"

"You didn't forget me again did you?" Kai glared at Tala. "Just asking."

"We're back!" Came Rei's voice from the door, the two boys ran out from the tree, Tala grabbing a sweet in the process, and sat at the monopoly board. Rei came in with the others, placing a large present under the tree. "Who won at Chinese checkers?"

"Me! Ha, ha! It was easy!" Kai boasted. Tala grumbled something along the lines of 'it was as stupid as chess'.

"Now we are playing BORED games! Games to play, when you're bored, because they're gay!" Tala said, making his move. Kai grinned.

"Yea, as you can see, I rock at monopoly, whether Tala cheats, or not!" Rei rolled his eyes.

"Simple way to cheat at monopoly, be that banker!" Rei said.

"People can see when you take money!" Kai said. Tala shook his head.

"I would have gone bankrupt five minutes after the game started, but I took money from the bank about…ten times?"

"See! It's the technique you use!" Rei said. "Almost like magic, that's why it's good to know card tricks for card games, you can trick the card set when playing poker," Rei said. "I learnt how to deal myself a royal-flush a while ago." Kai stared at him in amazement.

"You cheat at poker and actually get away with it!" Rei nodded.

"Unlike you Kai, Rei knows how to cheat." Tala said, Kai looked at the board.

"Rent, oh, and you missed another rent."

"Damn! I hate this game!" Tala said, throwing his paper money on the floor. Rei patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, Kai just rocks at this." Tala stood up.

"Whatever, I'm going for a walk, anyone want to come?" Zeo stood up.

"I'll go." He said, Tala nodded and they walked to the door.

"Bye."

Zzz

Kitty-cat: I'll leave it there, I have violin practice to attend to…-.-; joy…

Tala: I thought you liked the damned instrument? Even though you can't play it…

Kitty-cat: I've practised for ten minutes already! I don't need any more! 'Ne way, I need to wait for my friend to send me the homework

Tala: ¬.¬ I thought she was giving you notes that you didn't get from last lesson?

Kitty-cat: Yea she is, notes from last lesson…they where just to finish off for homework…hee, hee…'ne way

Caoi .