AN: Thanks to those who reviewed, this one has just taken a bit longer than I had expected but oh well. Hope you enjoy.
Breathing heavily, she lowered her gun slightly while scanning his eyes and face. She let her gun down and looked him in the face. Letting her eyes drop she holstered her gun into its leather home. Shaking her head, water drops flung themselves over the boy in front of her.
"You! I thought that you had decided not to come into this village any more," her voice was emotionless, she remembered this blue haired boy. He was the main reason why her mother thought of her as useless, some communal sex toy for the town. It was he; he took her mother's respect for her away. "Why should I let you leave this glade?"
"Hillary, I didn't mean for your mother to see you as some toy for the guys and me. It just happened that she saw us…you know…one night. Wasn't it just harmless sex? I mean, it wasn't as if I was trying to get you pregnant or anything." His brown eyes were staring right into hers. Then he lowered them to stare at the green grass that was underfoot.
"Tyson, you ruined my life! My mother abandoned me because of you! It wasn't harmless; it caused so much hurt and pain to my family. No one thought of me the same at home or at school or in the community. You can't say that it was so harmless, it was devastating to my life!" Hillary was getting worked up, "come on Tyson, my own mother didn't love me. Do you know how heart breaking that is? Your own mother not loving you!"
He looked up; his brown eyes were full of tears. Hillary could see his lip trembling.
"How dare you say that! I never knew my parents; I never knew the love that they had for me. My parents were killed when I was young; so don't preach to me about how it feels to be abandoned by your mother. At least you knew that your mother had loved you, not me, no, I had no mother or father just a grandfather who thinks he is cool!" his voice was rising and sweat was forming on his brow.
Finally after what felt like hours of silence, Tyson collapsed on the ground. His entire body shaking with the emotional strain he had just placed over it. Walking up and crouching beside him, Hillary hugged and kissed his forehead. Her friend of so many years had just had a mental relapse of depression. It swallowed him up every now and then. She sat down and let him lay his head on her lap. He cried for hours letting all the pain and suffering out.
"I'm sorry Tyson, I forgot about that. Have you ever thought about talking to some one about all this? I mean, I am one person, but a professional? They could probably help you get over it. I just listen to you," her voice was calm and full of emotion. As much as she tried to deny it, she liked the guy.
"All I need is someone to listen to me Hill, not a shrink to diagnose me with a psychopathic disorder. I am just a very emotional person, I always have been girl. Of course, you would know that wouldn't you?" his sneaky smile was mockingly cute and it brought a smile to her face.
Smiling back at him, Hillary nodded slowly, "You always managed to make a girl feel special Ty. Even if they did feel sad when they dumped you. Do you know how many hearts you broke? Even though nearly every time it was the girl who dumped you."
The hall was silent, yet it was filled of tired soldiers. No one spoke of the commander who had mysteriously disappeared; it was still too early to talk about. Everyone was looking around nervously at the guy with the flaming orange hair. He never spoke to anyone at all, and if he did, it was nothing more than a mumble or grunt.
Half way through breakfast, a small stature of a man got out of his seat. A few people turned their heads to find out what he was doing. Slowly he walked over to the quiet man and waited until he was acknowledged. He just stood there, patiently waiting, not moving a muscle with his eyes cast down.
Finally looking up at the small man he spoke, "What do you want you little brat, can't you see that I am eating here?" The remark was cold and emotionless. It had hit the little man hard, but he remained strong willed but kept his eyes on the ground.
"Sir, I am a miserable shot in weaponry and I wondered if you might have time to train an unworthy man your skills. I would hope that you can help as I need to improve or I will not be allowed to come back and fight for my country if it needs be," the blonde man was very quiet.
Looking him up and down, the man took his time in thinking the proposal over. He was a pathetic aim and had no idea of how to hold a weapon as simple as a handgun. Is he really worth my time? It was a while before he spoke; the whole mess hall was silent, waiting for his reply to the request.
"As you have asked respectively, I will help you. BUT it so as put one foot out of line, I will hand you a severe punishment that will make sure that you do not do it again. Also squirt, you will have to endure little stupid nicknames, as I will most likely not remember your name. Is that understood?"
Looking up slowly, the man noticed the blue eyes of the little man, "Yes sir, understood sir. Just for you, my name is Max Tate sir." With that he left for his table of friends. So quiet was his walk, not a sound was made.
This was the first time he had taken a person under his wing to help them improve. Was there a change in his heart for this boy? Max Tate, what a name for a little boy, but it suited him well.
The whole room was dead silent as the man with the flaming orange hair turned to look back at the gruel that sat mockingly in front of him. It didn't taste as bad as it looked, even though he secretly put small amounts of honey in it to sweeten it.
A door opened at the opposite end and a crazy man ran in screaming. Everyone looked up at the man. Over his face was a mask, but his eyes glinted a red and he was mumbling random Russian. His purple hair was pulled bach into a bad ponytail that resembled more of a Mohawk than anything else.
Getting up and walking to the ranting man, he pinned him to the floor. Grabbing his shoulders, the crazy man leaned forward pulling the orange haired man down. "They have you in their claws. Grasping for promotions, clawing for better training, better assignments. Run away or you will be gone before the day is out."
"Look sir, I don't know what you are raving on about but we are all quite happy here in this small barracks where everyone knows everyone else. What is your name man?" his voice was commanding and the pinned man replied without a hassle.
"I am Boris, I used to be just like you. Striving to be the most experienced and most highly trained marine that I could be. Then they started disappearing and excuses were made. Where did they go?" Boris was ranting incoherently and making all the men worry.
"Take…Boris and put him in the brig, at least we know that there is nothing for him to hurt himself or other with in there. Do it now and we will talk about his condition later. Am I understood?" the man with orange hair ordered his fellow marines.
"Yes Sir." Three random soldiers came and picked the raving mad Boris up and took him to the brig. Looking after the crazy man, he shook his head. He had heard of the disappearing soldiers from this very barracks a few years back. Taking a deep breath he looked around at the nervous soldiers around him.
"What are we going to do? We have no commanding officer and none of us have the experience to lead a whole platoon of men. Are we going to die?" a whiny voice sounded across the whole room. Did that man ever learn not to go squeaky when he was worried? He thought to himself.
"I will take command of the platoon. I have the most experience out of all of us here and I will make sure that we are not just lazing around. So now soldiers, you can call me either Officer Tala or Sir."
After finally getting out of the shower, I made my way to our room to get some dry clothes out. I pulled out all of the clothes in the dresser, but I still couldn't find it. Next I started on the bedside tables. Going through them, I found some very interesting books that my boyfriend had been reading recently. Unfortunately I couldn't understand a single word.
"Kai, have you seen my long black ribbon for my hair? I can't seem to find it anywhere in our room," I heard a muffled shuffle, I had dragged him into the shower and when I left he was fighting with a shirt that I had pulled out for him. "Kai, did you here me?"
From the kitchen, I heard a quiet voice call out, "Kitty, did you try those new draws which I bought for you put your extra tid bits in? Because I seem to remember seeing you place all your beautiful silk ribbons in there." In that time he had spoken to me, he had appeared behind me and grasped my waist. Leaning my head back, I nuzzled my head into the side of his neck. Walking forward, he pushed me towards the set of draws I had forgotten about.
"Open it Rei, I bet you will find your ribbon. If it is not in there then we will have to buy you a new one," his usually harsh voice was a sweet as chocolate. I pulled the top draw open and found all my ribbons. Pulling them all out I found my black ribbon.
It was special a ribbon as my mother and father had given it to me when I left China to go and live in Japan with my "girlfriend". Mariah and I had broken up a few years before and I had found that my love for the unreadable Russian had grown. I had never had the heart to tell them that I had fallen for Kai.
"Here let me fix your rat's tail for you today. I love the feel of your hair running through my fingers," Kai carefully picked up the silk and had pulled a brush out of thin air. Very gently, I could feel the brush going through the black jungle that is my black hair.
Sitting on the floor, we sat in silence while the Russian carefully brushed and tied back my hair. Without realising it, I saw his hands in front of my face. Smiling I leaned back into the curve of his body. My Ying and Yang bandanna was wrapped around my forehead and tied up.
Why was he always so quiet and sweet when we are alone yet be so cold and far away when the rest of the gang are around? He was a mysterious puzzle that I would spend the rest of my life quite happily trying to solve.
"I have to go to work soon kitten and so do you. Maybe we should have lunch, I will call you ok?" I hated it when we had to separate to go to work. I was a Café owner and it was 4 o'clock in the morning, I had to leave very soon.
Kai was the coach of their local beyblade team, also the Blade Breakers coach as well. He put so much time in training the children and even though he was very strict, they all simply adored him as much as I did. For some reason, the Russian was wearing the denim jeans that I had bought him and also a black shirt that looked awfully familiar.
"Don't I own that shirt? Or am I seeing doubles of everything?" I was playing with his hair, but he didn't seem to have noticed yet. He just smiled and helped me to my feet. I looked into his eyes. They seemed distant and worried. I held him closer; he seemed to come back to reality but not for very long.
"Kitten, it's time to go and I know you have a lot of work to do. I love you so much, I don't want to let you go," Kai's voice had gone to nothing more than an almost inaudible whisper. I leant in close and kissed him before leaving for work. His eyes followed me, I could feel them.