Before the Altar
Tala's POV
A/N: Erh, yes, since this fic is going to be about Tala witnessing the marriage of his close friend, Kai Hiwatari, of course there is going to be a GIRL that Kai is married to. But fret not, because I'm definitely aware there are rabid Kai fan girls out there who will want my life if I pair Kai up with someone they abhor. So the girl's identity is discreet, and when I write this, I merely picture her as someone beautiful and worthy enough to capture the heart of our very own Kai. No references to any girls in Beyblade or OC at all, so it's really very much up to you.
mysterio000
I don't believe this. You made it further, and faster than I ever was capable of, and I must really deflat my ego and take my hats off you. Man, Kai, you're way smarter and quicker than what my imagination limits it to me.
I knew it would come some day, some how, the moment I saw her, but heck, this soon? No wonder your fans drive themselves to the brink of insanity thinking about what the hell actually goes on half of the time in your mind. You're always the enigmatic one, aren't you, Kai?
Hmm, but I should have known. We all have known. You always are the one who accepts change as and when it comes. Change is inevitable, the preacher always says, and this scenario always somehow happens to prove right in your case. I've known you my entire life - from those dingy, dark abbey days when we were still children, to right this moment where you are standing dressed in a black tuxedo.
From the young, innocent child who used to lose in snowball fights with me, to the power-hungry person who stole Black Dranzer, to the scowling, aloof Bladebreaker you became, to rejoin my team as part of Demolition Boys and then to Blitzkrieg Boys, you are one man who probably will be the first to say change is inevitable in your life.
And then, you changed into what you are later, to become someone whom I can call a friend.
But I've never seen you change to such an extent until she graced your life merely with her presence.
Man, Kai, I may be a little dense and retarded at times, but I've known you three-quarters of my entire life, and if there's anything I should know about you, I just know. It doesn't take an idiot nor a blind man to tell when you fell in love with her.
Like that first time when she merely entered the room we were in, and you started looking away with something unfathomable appearing on your cheeks. It was that one moment in time when I felt like the solar system had just burst into smithereens. Was the almighty, aloof, amazing Kai Hiwatari actually blushing?
And then there were more. I noticed whenever she was merely within a few feet metre distance within you, you would suddenly act all weird and jumpy and stupid. That's a farfetched imagery to picture of the great Kai, but she just had the capability, anyway.
What was it in her that simply made it such that the moment she walked into your life, she lit the torch that scorched a portion in your heart? Was it the beauty she exuded that made the dozen men worship the grounds she walked, was it her angelic aura she simply projected that made any mere mortal treading the grounds beside her pale in inferiority?
No matter which angle or perspective I tried to capture her in, I could not see what you see in her, Kai.
I refused to believe it at first. My long withstanding friend, the great Kai, actually falling in love? I would really much prefer to hear the announcement of the apocalypse, than the love calamity that was about to claim your life. But then again, destiny cannot be changed, I guess. I was much inclined to ignore my sentiments, pushing my overreactive imagination to sensitivity.
But you, Kai, always make me come face to face with the truth somehow.
In her seemingly final years of her youth when she revealed to you the secret that she had been plagued with leukemia all this while, and she was dying, I had never seen you look like that.
Pale, ashen face. Loss of colors, devoid of humanity. Usual determined, fiery light in your eyes replaced by a sudden maelstrom of emotions so strong, I know not how to define.
That day was also the day when I found you on the hospital grounds, outside her ward, slumped onto the floor, head encompassed by your hands.
You told me you loved her - and then, of course, I remember that sheer glisten in your eyes. It appeared only so briefly, but that very memory of it is embossed into my mind till this day.
Kai Hiwatari, driven to the edge of tears, because of a girl? I had thought I was dreaming, and how so it was such a very bad dream that I suffered a near concussion from knocking my head onto the wall to reassure myself of my nightmarish state. But no, you really were there on the ground, broken.
The last time I saw you in this very state, was the moment when you leant upon the lockers after your fight with Brooklyn, and how Dranzer smashed into pieces. You looked the replica of it - except, this time, you weren't alone.
I remember how awkward it had been at first, when I had to kneel down and pat you on the shoulder. Tala Ivanov is not a sentimental friend, and never will comfortably and openly express and convey his concern to anyone in the least embarrassing ways. But then I remembered I have known you for near eternity, and that no matter what circumstance I find myself most humiliating in, you are my friend, and always will be.
I held you for the first time, and you tell me simply that you really don't want to see her die.
Like all good and divine things, all fairytales have a happy ending, don't they always, Kai? Hn, you must be swelling with egoistical pride and happiness now because you have got the miracle you had wished for.
"I need a miracle, Tala."
Your words resounded in my head back in the hospital when you said it. Now, all you have ever wished for has come true, hasn't it?
Because you are here right now, in the last place I thought you will be in - standing right before the altar. I'd rather tell you that Dranzer actually looks better than a chicken, than let you know you actually look good in a tuxedo. Whatever, I'm sure I'll look better in one if I ever have the opportunity to put one on. Don't gloat yet, Kai.
Before you, a priest stands, and around me, there are the people you and I have known since the teenage years. Your baby breaker friends, the All-Starz, the White Tiger X, F-Dynasty…Even the people that used to be Barthez's kids from Barthez Battalion are here to witness this occasion. I'm only glad Boris Balkov still has eternity to spend his wondrous days in the prison. Cheers.
Bryan, Spencer and Ian are by my side. They pretend to be scoffing and folding their arms like the last thing they want to do is to be here as witnesses to your achieved happiness, but hey, they are the Blitzkrieg Boys after all. We guys are a bunch of inflated egos. You are one of us, too, Kai. They really want you to be happy with her, and I'll bet my life on it. They're just acting like a bunch of pretentious brats.
There's some annoying symphony that starts playing at the back, but it's sort of nice. I'm relaxing at my seat now, and the tangerine rays of the sun are shining through the misty glass windows of this small, airy church.
You always are someone who prefer non-annoying, silent, solitary affairs, Kai. This wedding is no exception, I supposed. It's good to see you didn't allow your fan girls to barge in, nor the irritating media that constantly flash their cameras to blind your eyes.
Don't mean to burst your ego, Kai, but that masked, nervous look sure doesn't suit your bad-boy image. You think you can hide, but like I said, I'm Tala Ivanov, and as your friend, I know a lot of things about you that you don't.
You cast a quick glance at me, and in your eyes, I read anticipation and the slightest hint of anxiety. Ha ha, Kai, you can be the world's top-notch blader, but when it comes to things like this, it still takes your old team captain Tala to set things straight.
I flash you a thumbs-up, and smirk my wolfish smirk.
It gets to you immediately, for you mouth your lips into something like a 'hn' - typical of the confident Kai I know. It feels good to know that I've somehow reassured you that things are going to turn out somehow okay.
On cue, the annoying symphony stops playing, and a wedding orchestral mix of grandeur begins to play loudly. Gasps and breaths erupt around me, and all heads turn in excitement towards the opaque doors that now open.
There is a flood of light, and she appears just like how you love her, Kai. Enthralling, mesmerizing, whatever. I smirk, knowing the typical Kai reaction, and true to prediction, when I turn around, there you are.
Kai Hiwatari - lips parted slightly, frozen to the spot, so much in love with the woman that is making her walk towards the altar now.
Some people start bawling. Stop that, it's making everything seem like an extract from a soap opera, and I don't want to be in it. Don't they have any shame? It's not like they're attending your funeral, Kai.
But it's sort of touching, I must admit.
I wonder why my fingernails are poking into my flesh. It hurts! I must be too nervous for you as well. Tala - nervous? Stop that, it sounds stupid. Just count me as your better friend who shares your pain of experiencing anxiety. I'm always the nice guy, huh, Kai?
She reaches your side, and you take her hands.
The atmosphere starts to get a little hazel, sort of surreal. I don't really remember what really happens next, as the melody that plays starts to set in and make everything dreamy and trance-like. The priest mutters something, you guys say something like vows.
But whatever it is, in the next moment, you hold up your fingers, and on the fourth digit, I see a silver band slipped onto it.
In that moment, you smile.
You really are one happy man now, aren't you, Kai? Having the person you love and almost lost to a long-term illness now recovering from the miracle that saved not only her, but both of you.
When you walk back down the altar again, and your friends start to shower countless rose petals on you as their tokens of love, I stand up and join the standing applause the audience gives.
And then, though briefly and surreptitiously, I see it all, Kai.
You cast a quick glance over your shoulders before you exit, and your eyes meet mine.
In that one look, in that one tiny, faint smile touching your lips, you tell me honestly that you are happy.
I don't know if you are able to read my returning glance, but knowing you and me and the unfathomable bond that we share over the years and more, I know you deciphered the glance I shot back.
I'm glad. My small smile says it all.
And you smile back. Thank you, Tala.
As the church doors close after the two of you, all I am aware as I take my place at my seat again, is the goofy, wistful smile that is so un-Tala on my lips, but it is okay.
Kai Hiwatari is happy, and so is this friend of his.
Owari
A/N: Wrote this on the eve of Chinese New Year, so let's just say, to all Chinese celebrating this lunar festival, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! May prosperity and well wishes embrace you in the years ahead!
Apologies for Tala's definite OOC-ness in this ficcie. Only hope it wasn't so bad! Gah, I love Tala so much, and I feel awful for making him out into some sentimental freak.
Tala plushies to all who reviews…Erh, on second thoughts, Tala's mine, so I shall offer Kai's plushies instead.
mysterio000