Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this chapter below, except for Kristen Hiwatari, of course.
From the previous chapter…
"What are you staring at?" Kristen asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious under Ray's sudden 'inspection'.
"You," Ray said, then immediately regretting that he was too blunt in his answer, for Kristen seemed to be looking for a hole to crawl in. A soft strand of hair escaped from behind his ear, as he wasn't wearing his head-band. Ray was about to reach out and tuck it behind his ear when Kristen did it for him.
Millions of thoughts were racing in Kristen's head as Ray stood there, staring at her intensely.
Oh, shit. I've gone mad.
Yes, you have.
That doesn't help.
Why did you do that for, anyway?
I don't know. Maybe I really have gone mad.
Maybe you should go home tomorrow.
You're right. Maybe-
Too late. He's going to kiss you.
And Ray did. It started out so briefly, but the process was long and sweet. There was no tongue involved, it was plain for all to see that Ray was taking it slowly, not forcing Kristen to do anything she didn't want. Ray figured that he was going mad, since he sensed something behind those closed doors of Kristen, but didn't know what it was. But whatever it was, he's going to find out. (A/N: Nice resolution.)
When the kiss ended, Kristen realized that her arms were around Ray's neck and his were hanging loosely by her hips.
She was about to let go when Ray held her closer. He hugged her, quite tightly as well. Kristen liked that feeling. In fact, she loved it. So she hugged back, with just as much strength she could muster, at that time of night.
But Ray stopped all the flow of warm feelings, just by saying…
~*Permission*~
"Are you hiding something, Kristen?"
Kristen pushed Ray back by the chest as painful memories came flooding back. it was as if the long, unused dams have suddenly broken loose and free, and the river-water now started flowing in torrents. She couldn't get used to it; she didn't want to. The emotions Ray stirred up in her heart were more than she could ever take. Painful memories of her being hurt flashed through her mind; she felt as though it was wrecking her all over again.
She stared at Ray hard, not knowing what to think. She could see from Ray's facial expression that he, too, didn't know how to react by the sudden rejection.
Kristen wanted nothing more than to tell him about what had happened, nothing more, than to trust again. But the wrenching pains in her heart forbid her to do anything more than rational.
"What-" he started, but Kristen beat him to it.
"I don't know what you're talking about; there's nothing for me to hide, is there?" The question hung from the silence, echoing magically in both their heads.
"Isn't there?" Ray countered softly, watching the shock and hurt on Kristen's face turn to unmistakable anger.
"Just leave me alone, Ray."
And with that, she stalked away, leaving Ray alone and lonely in the shady silhouette of the moon and silent whispers of the trees.
The next morning, Max and Tyson were hitting each other on the head with couch pillows, Kai was standing near the ledge of the balcony, staring out into nothing, Kenny was working on their Bit-Beasts with Dizzi, and Kristen and Ray were in their rooms, brooding. They were all waiting for Mr. Dickenson, to announce the new itinerary for that day, as the new girl members of the BladeBreakers were coming.
As Ray and Kristen walked out of their rooms at the same time, and as their staring match began, Mr. Dickenson knocked and called out.
As he walked in, he looked at Max and Tyson, whose heads of hair were disheveled, and their smiles goofy.
"Enjoying yourselves, eh?" he chuckled.
Kai raised a doubting eyebrow and asked Mr. Dickenson when the new members will be coming.
"Ah, yes! We will be going over to fetch them here instead!"
"Why?" Kenny, Max and Tyson echoed.
"Because their flights got delayed and they came here in the wee hours. They need their rest, boys."
"And girl," Kristen added softly, not knowing what to make of this new, jovial man.
"Ah! And who is this beautiful lady?" his loud voice boomed.
"Name's Kristen Hi- I mean, Ishida."
Mr. Dickenson looked so confused that Kristen decided to enlighten him a bit more.
"You see, I don't have a Bit-Beast. I might get one sometime later, but not now. I came in because, well… I'm related to Kai."
Mr. Dickenson's eyes twinkled as he looked from Kai, who looked slightly put off, to the new girl, who was looking straight at him.
He smiled and said simply, "Very well. You may join us, of course, since there is an extra bed anyway."
"Thank you!" Kristen smiled broadly at him and Mr. Dickenson could feel his heart deciding whether to melt or soar instead. He couldn't help it; her smile was so beautiful, just like his grand-daughter's. At that instant, he felt a strange affection for this young girl. It's no wonder Kai would feel for her, he thought silently to himself, especially since Kai is so cold all the time.
He would have chuckled if he didn't hear the bus sounding from downstairs.
"Hear that, boys? Oh, I mean, hear that, people? It's time to go! Come on!" he boomed in a jovial voice.
They were boarding the team bus when Kristen tugged at Kai's sleeve gently and asked him if he could sit with her during the trip to the hotel.
Kai looked down at his sister's wide light green eyes and was immediately alarmed by the sadness in them.
"Did anyone do anything to you?" Kai asked gruffly, instantly thinking of Tyson.
Kristen shook her head and refused to let her thoughts go back to last night, when Ray had her so close to him that she could smell his every scent…
"No, it's just that… I'd like to have some company."
Some of the alarm faded away from Kai's eyes, but the wariness was still there.
"Listen, don't sit with Tyson afterwards, all right? I have to sit with Kenny, he needs to tell me something about my Bit-Beast."
Kristen sighed with disappointment so clear in her voice that Kai wanted to tell Kenny to talk to him another day. But she smiled a tiny smile and asked him to go on, that she could sit alone.
Kai nodded his head and went to the back seat to sit with Kenny, who was already busy with Dizzi. However, he made sure that from where he was sitting, he could see whatever was going on with his sister.
Kristen sat at one of the window seats, looked out, and saw an amusing sight. A black thrush was pecking at another yellow breasted robin, and from the look of it, the peck didn't seem to be that affectionate as people would like to think it to be. The yellow robin didn't seem to mind, though. But as it suddenly hopped towards the thrush, the thrush was taken by surprise and nearly fell off the thin branch.
Moments later, all Kristen could see was that the two heads of the thrush and the robin were put together in a definitely affectionate way, as they were nudging each other gently.
Kristen nearly jumped in her seat when somebody spoke behind her. She turned around and saw Tyson grin.
"Is this seat taken?" Tyson asked, with that huge grin still on his face.
The corners of Kristen's mouth tilted upwards while Kai's titled downwards. But neither of them could say a word, as Ray suddenly materialized out of nowhere.
"Yes, it is," Ray said, frowning at Tyson.
Tyson raised his eyebrow as Kristen started protesting. After that, Tyson was rather lost, as Kai and Ray kept insisting that the seat was taken and Kristen kept shaking her head at that assumption.
In the end, Max saved the day, by shouting out, "Tyson! Over here!"
Tyson reluctantly moved towards the front, where Max was seated. He plopped down on the seat beside Max and glared at Ray as he saw Ray sit himself beside Kristen.
The bus started moving, with the bus driver complaining slightly about the earlier commotion. The ride was fairly quiet, except for Dizzi' s occasional 'talking'.
Kristen turned her head and looked at Ray with a frown on her face to let him know what she thought of the earlier brawl.
Ray was slightly slumped in his seat as he saw how Kristen looked at him and started frowning.
"This seat was not taken."
"It was."
"No it wasn't."
"Yes it was." Ray fought the urge to smile as he saw Kristen sigh with exasperation.
"All right, then," she said calmly, "who took this seat?"
"Me."
Kristen gave out a little cry of outrage. "I didn't give you any permission! Don't you even have the least decency of asking someone if the seat's taken?!"
Ray gave her a funny look, but remained silent.
"Argh!" Kristen said softly, watching Ray's indifference.
She pulled her windbreaker over her head and refused to look at anything else or anyone else, except darkness.
Ray couldn't help but smile now. The absurdity of her statement and her weird outrage still rang in his mind. From what he had heard, assuming that he had not heard wrongly, that she was a girl with very good manners. Very, very good manners. But then again, she didn't seem the type, Ray told himself silently.
He looked at the lump under the windbreaker and smiled once again. He pried the windbreaker from her tightly clutched fists. Reluctantly, Kristen let go, knowing that he would probably win her in the strength department.
"What are you doing?" she asked instead, and saw the way Ray looked at her messed up hair and smile.
She suddenly felt annoyed. After all, he was the one who pulled the windbreaker away from her.
Kristen moved her hand to smoothen her hair when Ray beat her to it. (A/N: Sounds familiar?) She started protesting, but Ray insisted as he said softly, "You did for me last night, let me do it for you today."
As soon as he got the words out his mouth, he started hitting himself on the head mentally. What is wrong with me, Ray thought, I have never spoken to anyone like that. not even my mum! He withdrew his hand and tried his very bets to look indifferent, but knew inside that his hand was shaking slightly.
He looked into Kristen's eyes, slightly shocked that it was light green instead of gray, and bent down.
Kristen couldn't speak. Anyway, she didn't need to.
Ray whispered huskily, "Do I need permission for this?" Then he bent down and wanted to give her a kiss.
But the bus jerked to a violent stop.
A/N: sorry I took so long to upload this chapter. I was kind of busy.. so don't blame me, guys! Remember to review as well, okay? Thanks!